Tea prices dip on higher supply of poor quality leaf

Tea prices in Bangladesh fell about 2 percent at the weekly auction on Tuesday due to higher supplies of inferior grade leaf, but strong demand for quality leaf capped a steeper decline.

Bangladeshi tea fetched an average of 174.46 taka ($2.50) per kg at the auction, compared with 178.36 taka in the previous sale.

The volume of poor grade leaf was higher and that

contributed to declines in both prices and sales volume, a senior official at National Brokers said.

There was however strong demand for quality tea which helped to limit any further drop in prices, the official added.

About 41.4 percent of the 3.28 million kg offered at the

sole auction centre in Chittagong was unsold.

In the previous auction, about 34 percent of the 3 million kg on offer remained unsold.

Bangladesh’s tea production in 2016 is expected to have risen to a record 80 million kg from 66 million a year earlier, commerce minister Tofail Ahmed said earlier this month, output that may be big enough to make imports unnecessary.

From a net exporter, Bangladesh has now become a net importer of tea due to rise in consumption.

Following are the results of the latest auction (figures in

Bangladesh taka per kg):

BROKENS

 Bold/Large Brokens                   145-165

 Medium Brokens                       160-170

 Small Brokens                        165-175

 Plain Brokens                          70-90

FANNINGS

 Best Fannings                        190-205

 Good Fannings                        175-187

 Medium Fannings                      155-165

 Plain Fannings                        80-100

DUST

 Pekoe Dust                           165-205

 Red Dust                             120-245

 Dust                                 145-256

 Churamoni Dust                       194-249