Volume falls at Coonoor tea sales

Tea market will remain closed on Friday due to Republic Day and hence the Dust tea auction of Coonoor Tea Trade Association held on Fridays will be held on Thursday this week along with the leaf tea auction. A volume of 11.64 lakh kg has been catalogued for this Sale No: 4. This is as much as 1.35 lakh kg less than the offer of last week.

Of this, 7.57 lakh kg belongs to leaf grades and 4.07 lakh kg, dust grades. As much as 10.61 lakh kg belongs to CTC variety and only 1.03 lakh kg, orthodox variety. The proportion of orthodox teas continues to be low in both leaf and dust grades. In the leaf counter, only 46,000 kg belongs to orthodox while 7.11 lakh kg, CTC. Among the dusts, only 57,000 kg belongs to orthodox while 3.50 lakh kg, CTC.

Homedale Estate’s three leaf grades, auctioned by Global Tea Brokers (GTB), fetched over ₹300/kg last week. “Of them, Broken Orange Pekoe was bought by Ketti Valley Tea India Pvt Ltd for ₹321 a kg – the highest-ever price fetched by this grade from any factory in any of the auctions held by CTTA in all its 55 years of auctioning”, GTB Managing Director Rajesh Gupta told Business Line.

“Homedale Estate’s two other leaf grades – Broken Pekoe and Broken Orange Pekoe Fanning – were bought by Santosh Tea Industries P Ltd. each for ₹316 a kg. These were the highest price fetched by Homedale Tea Factory ever since it started manufacturing these grades 66 years ago”, Rajesh Gupta said.

These three grades topped the entire auction this week, beating even the orthodox teas.

In the CTC Dust Tea auction, Homedale Estate’s three grades, auctioned by Global Tea Brokers, topped at ₹294, ₹292 and ₹259. These were the highest prices fetched by this factory for these grades since it started manufacturing.