A volume of 15.24 lakh kg has been catalogued for sale of the auctions of Coonoor Tea Trade Association (CTTA) which will conclude on Friday.

It is among the lowest volume of the past one year although it is some 36,000 kg more than offer for last week.

Importantly, this includes a substantial volume of teas unsold in previous auctions. About 22 to 32 per cent of the offer had remained unsold in the last few auctions. The arrival of fresh teas has not picked up yet as production in January was less than normal level due to adverse winter. 

“Frost was experienced in 29.5 hectares of tea field in Kundah and Udhagamandalam zones. The soil temperature as also humidity levels were lower than last year. Overall, lower temperature stunted production”, Deputy Director of UPASI Tea Research Foundation K G Udaya Bhanu said.

Of the 15.24 lakh kg offered for this week’s auctions, as much as 14.14 lakh kg belongs to CTC variety and only 1.10 lakh kg orthodox variety. In the leaf tea counter, only 69,000 kg belongs to orthodox, while 9.90 lakh kg, CTC. Among the dust tea, only 41,000 kg belongs to orthodox while 4.24 lakh kg, CTC. In all, 10.59 lakh kg belongs to Leaf grades and 4.65 lakh kg, Dust grades.

Homedale Tea Factory created a new price record last week when its Red Dust grade, auctioned by Global Tea Auctioneers Pvt Ltd., (GTAPL), topped the entire auctions when Tea Services India Pvt Ltd., bought it for ₹400 a kg. Two other Dust grades of Homedale, auctioned by GTAPL, followed at ₹371 each. In the CTC Leaf tea auctions, Homedale’s two grades, auctioned by GTAPL, topped at ₹360 and ₹331. Among other CTC teas, Crosshill Estate Special got ₹310, Pinewood Estate ₹278, Vigneshwar Estate ₹270 and Darmona Estate ₹266.

Quotations with the brokers indicated ₹78-83 a kg for plain Leaf grades and ₹161-227 for the best grades. For plain Dust grades, they ranged ₹80-86 and for the best grades, ₹159-231.

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