Coonoor Tea Trade Association’s auction for this year opened on Thursday and Friday on an encouraging note with higher volume being bought despite rise in prices.
Thanks to increased demand for hot tea from the northern States reeling under severe cold, prices rose to average Rs 99.76 a kg from Rs 97.90 at the final auctions of 2012.
This was the highest price fetched among all the auctions of 2012, reveals our analysis of the market reports.
Nevertheless, nearly 96 per cent of the 23-week high volume offered for sale was bought when the market reopened after 15 days closure for Christmas and New Year.
In all, 15.03 lakh kg were sold against 13.87 lakh kg at the final auction of 2012. This was the highest volume of the last 22 auctions.
Buoyancy prevailed with an increase of as much as 1.16 lakh kg in the off-take even as prices rose by Rs 1.86 for every kg sold.
Consequently, the overall turnover increased to Rs 14.99 crore from Rs 13.58 crore in 2012 year-end sale.
This was the highest turnover among all auctions of last year. This increase of Rs 1.41 crore marked a growth 10.38 per cent on auction-on-auction basis.