More tea to be auctioned this week, but producers fear rains may erode supply

As considerably as eighteen.98-lakh kg tea has been catalogued for Sale No: 48 of the auctions at the Coonoor Tea Trade Affiliation, scheduled to conclude on Friday.

While the quantity is about fifty eight,000 kg much more than the prior week’s provide , it is among the the most affordable volumes to be auctioned in recent situations. The quantity involves unsold tea from prior auctions as clean tea arrival proceeds to be reduced.

Producers say the provides at the auctions are probable to erode in the coming months far too, thanks to torrential rains. “

The rains have induced superior absenteeism among the personnel on lots of times. Most of them are migrant labourers from Jharkhand who did not report to function on quite a few times thanks to weighty rains. We anxiety a 60 per cent decline in manufacturing thanks to this,” Lakshmanan Vairavan, a planter, told BusinessLine.

Also see: TN floods push up tea demand from customers in lots of States

“We have not experienced sunlight for around a fortnight now. The steady rains and mist have induced retardation in advancement of tea leaves. In addition, as personnel have been not able to harvest on time, manufacturing has appear down dramatically,”G Udayakumar, Director of specialty tea main Avataa Drinks, said.

Orthodox share remains reduced

Of the eighteen.98-lakh kg available for this week’s auctions, as considerably as seventeen.61-lakh kg belongs to the CTC variety and the remaining 1.37-lakh kg falls underneath the orthodox variety. The proportion of orthodox teas proceeds to be reduced in both equally leaf and dust grades. In the leaf tea counter, only 1.07-lakh kg belongs to orthodox when thirteen.73 lakh kg is CTC. Amongst dust tea, only thirty,000 kg belongs to orthodox when 3.88 lakh kg is CTC. All round, as considerably as fourteen.eighty lakh kg belongs to leaf grades and 4.eighteen lakh kg is dust grades.

Acquired-leaf manufacturing unit Homedale Tea Factory’s Purple Dust quality, auctioned by Global Tea Auctioneers Pvt Ltd (GTAPL), topped the entire auction previous week when Tea Providers India Pvt Ltd purchased it for ₹360 a kg. Homedale Damaged Orange Pekoe quality, auctioned by GTAPL, topped the leaf tea auctions fetching ₹331 a kg. These two were the only grades that crossed ₹300/kg and consequently defeat export-oriented teas from corporates. Amongst other CTC teas, Crosshill Estate Particular acquired ₹286, Pinewood Estate ₹266, Shanthi Supreme ₹231, Vigneshwar Estate ₹213, Deepika Supreme and Hiribil Excel ₹201 each individual, and Hittakkal Estate ₹200.

Quotations with the brokers indicated ₹74 to ₹80 a kg for simple leaf grades and ₹146 to ₹186 for the greatest grades. For simple dust grades, they ranged among ₹61 and ₹80, and for the greatest grades, from ₹145 to ₹200.