Arrivals improved at the Kochi dust tea auction even as prices remained depressed. Leaf arrivals and prices remained steady at the leaf auction. There was 11,31,000 kg of dust and 2,60,000 kg of leaf on offer at the auction. The CTC dust auction opened weak and continued to fall further as the auction progressed.
The drop was less as far as good liquoring grades were concerned. AVT and Vimal Tea continued to be active on good liquoring grades while Kerala State Civil Supplies Corporation and Tata Global remained subdued. Hindustan Unilever remained selective. There was improved enquiry from Kerala “loose” tea traders.
Export enquiry was low. Orthodox dust auction opened steady. Some grades quoted lower and there were several withdrawals. Internal buyers lent support.
Leaf Auction
Good liquoring, high-grown broken orthodox leaf grades were steady to firm and sometimes moved up in value. Bolder broken grades and fannings were irregular.
Medium bolder broken and whole orthodox leaf grades remained barely steady. Price of regular broken grades and fannings tended to ease and there were heavy withdrawals from these lots. There was fair demand from exporters to CIS countries. HUL operated in whole leaf orthodox grades.
Exporters to Tunisia remained subdued. High grown fannings were absorbed by tea bag exporters. Even as good liquoring grades quoted lower at the CTC leaf auction, prices of most other grades including high priced teas tended to ease at the CTC leaf auction. HUL and AVT were selective. Exporters and upcountry buyers lent fair amount of support.
Top Prices
Injipara SFD fetched the top price at the dust auction at Rs 125 followed by Injipara RD/SRD at Rs 122 and Kannavarai SFD/SRD at Rs 120. At the leaf auction, Pascoe's green tea fetched the top price at Rs 280 followed by Chamraj OP at Rs 201, Chamraj FOP at Rs 196 and Sutton OP at Rs 169.