The Russia-Ukraine war took a toll on tea trade with exporters refraining from bidding in most lots at sale 9 of the auctions of Coonoor Tea Trade Association.
On the one hand, exporters said that orders have dried up for shipment to Russia, Ukraine, rest of CIS and even some European markets. On the other hand, they took a ‘wait-and-watch’ approach before investing on teas as most were unprepared to risk shipping to volatile destinations. “In all categories – CTC or orthodox, leaf or dust – export participation was subdued. In most lots, prices fell up to ₹ 10 a kg over the previous week as internal buyers turned selective in the absence of keen export buying. In most lots, teas had to be withdrawn for want of bids”, Ravichandran Broos, Vice President, Paramount Tea Marketing (SI) P Ltd., told Business Line. Overall, the market caused concern to the producers and traders because teas worth ₹ 5.81 crore remained unsold as there were no takers for as much as 39 per cent of the offer. This is despite the average price crashing to below ₹ 100/kg for the first time in several weeks. The average price dropped to ₹98.57 a kg. Consequently, in just one week, the overall earnings at the auction declined by ₹ 1.21 crore or 11.55 per cent. The bought leaf tea factory, Homedale Tea factory, which has been creating new prices records week after week last one month created yet another price record this week.
“Our Broken Orange Pekoe Leaf grade, auctioned by Global Tea Auctioneers Pvt Ltd (GTAPL) topped the entire auctions when Sree Sai Corporation bought it for ₹ 407 a kg. This is the highest price fetched by any tea in the regular auctions of CTTA so far this year. It is also the highest price fetched any of our teas since manufacturing started in our factory in 1949”, Homedale Managing Partner Raman Menon said. In the CTC dust tea auctions, two grades of Homedale Estate, auctioned by GTAPL, topped at ₹ 380 and ₹ 371. All other grades got less than ₹300/kg. Among other CTC teas, Crosshill Estate Special got ₹290, Darmona Estate and Pinewood Estate ₹260 each, Hiribil Excel ₹252 and Vigneshwar Estate ₹236.
Among orthodox teas, Kodanad got ₹240, Chamraj ₹235, Kairbetta ₹222 and Erinkadu ₹213.