Stakeholders of South Indian tea auctions have approached the Tea Board with a request to sort out the technical issues as there are frequent disruptions in trading.
Industry sources told BusinessLine that Tea Board is in the process of addressing the issues as the glitches are leading to the stoppage of auctions at many South Indian centres. The Board has assured to sort out the issue at the earliest.
Officials at the Tea Trade Association of Cochin said these technical issues are dampening the purpose of which the new auction platform was rolled out. The impact of disruptions and delays are no more a teething issue and the trade has requested an immediate remedy for the smooth conduct of the auctions.
Meanwhile, CTC dust market was down in sale 8 in Kochi auctions, as blenders were not active in the sale vis-à-vis previous weeks. This has reflected in the average price realisation which was down by ₹3 at ₹139 per kg against ₹142 in the previous week. Of the 9,72,571 kg offered, only 77 per cent was sold.
Auctioneers Forbes, Ewart & Figgis said the market for select powdery grades barely remained steady and tended to ease. Others were irregular and lower by ₹2-5 a kg and witnessed a lot of withdrawals. In orthodox dust, primary grades remained steady, while others were lower. The quantity offered was 5,500 kg and exporters absorbed a small quantity sold.
Exporters cautious
However, traders who are concentrating on exports are apprehensive of the overseas orders in the coming days in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Russia is a major buyer of orthodox leaf from Kochi auctions. At present, there are no issues connected with exports and a clear picture on overseas orders will emerge shortly, sources in the trade said. The leaf market was also down with Nilgiri whole leaf and brokens in orthodox grades was lower with a longer margin of ₹5-10. Exporters to CIS and West Asia lent only a fair support, the auctioneers said.