A volume of 15.82 lakh kg has been catalogued for Sale No: 11 of the auctions of Coonoor Tea Trade Association to be concluded on Friday.

However, due to frequent glitches in the cloud server of the Bharath Auction module, there was a heavy disruption during the auction on Thursday.

With no sign of export purchase picking up due to Russia-Ukraine war and concomitant development in Europe and the US, The volume auctioned is 1.84 lakh kg less than last week’s offer.  It includes teas unsold in the previous weeks as over 30 per cent had remained unsold in earlier auctions.

“Most top brands have stopped their operations in Russia. In Ukraine, nothing is certain at the moment. It will take some time before exporters invest on fresh teas”, L Vairavan, an exporter told BusinessLine.  

Ray of hope

However, there is a ray of hope with the upcountry buyers. As teas from North India are yet to hit the market, domestic traders are picking up teas from the South.  While this can push up the sales volume, prices take a hit as domestic buyers don’t bid high in the absence of competition from exporters.

Of the 15.82 lakh kg offered for this week’s auctions, as much as 14.46 lakh kg belongs to CTC variety and only 1.36 lakh kg were orthodox variety. The proportion of orthodox teas continues to be low in both leaf and dust grades.  

In the leaf tea counter, only 92,000 kg belongs to orthodox while 10.26 lakh kg were CTC.  

Among the dust tea, only 44,000 kg belongs to orthodox while 4.20 lakh kg, CTC. In all, 11.18 lakh kg belongs to Leaf grades and 4.64 lakh kg, Dust grades.

Homedale Estate’s Super Red Dust grade, actioned by Global Tea Auctioneers Pvt Ltd., (GTAPL), topped the auction last week when Tea Services India Pvt Ltd., bought it for ₹375 a kg.  Two other grades of Homedale Dust teas, auctioned by GTAPL, followed at ₹373 and ₹364 each.

Crosshill Estate’s Special dust grade, auctioned by GTAPL, fetched ₹320.  In the CTC Leaf tea auction, Homedale Estate’s tea, auctioned by GTAPL, topped at ₹331.  Among other CTC teas, Darmona Estate got ₹277, Pinewood Estate fetched ₹250 and Vigneshwar Estate got ₹231. 

Quotations with the brokers indicated ₹75-78 a kg for plain Leaf grades and ₹142-235 for the best grades. For plain Dust grades, it ranged between ₹71 and ₹77 and for the best grades, ₹158-198.