An element of buoyancy was noticed at sale 45 of the auctions of Coonoor Tea Trade Association with an increase on all three parameters – price, volume sold and the overall earnings.

Although the export purchase continued to be selective and more towards teas priced less than ₹100 a kg, upcountry buyers stepped up their demand especially to cover the possible short supplies. “The recent floods in Kerala have caused some concern about the availability of teas from there at least for a few weeks necessitating us to build stocks with Nilgiris teas”, a buyer told BusinessLine .

The increased demand pushed up the average price to ₹90.32 a kg – the highest of the last seven weeks. This was the first time since October 1 that average prices have risen above ₹90/kg mark.

Nevertheless, buyers showed interest to absorb quality teas, even the high-priced ones. Consequently, 17.59 lakh kg was sold – the highest in a fortnight.

The higher price and increased sale volume pushed up the overall earnings to ₹16.39 crore – the highest in the last two months except on October 29 when the earnings rose to ₹16.46 crore.

Two grades of bought leaf factory Homedale Tea factory, auctioned by Global Tea Auctioneers Pvt Ltd (GTAPL) topped the entire auctions beating even the export-oriented orthodox teas from corporates.

Homedale Pekoe Dust grade, auctioned by GTAPL, topped when Tea Services India Pvt Ltd., bought it for ₹325 a kg.

Homedale Broken Orange Pekoe Fannings grade, auctioned by GTAPL, topped the Leaf tea auctions fetching ₹306.

These were the only grades which crossed ₹300/kg.

Among other CTC teas, Cross Estate Premium got ₹280, Pinewood Estate ₹250 and Vigneshwar Estate ₹210.

Among orthodox teas, Chamraj got ₹252, Nonsuch Orthodox ₹211 and Kodanad ₹202.

Overall, nearly 84 per cent of the offer was sold.

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