Bangladesh tea prices dip

Tea prices in Bangladesh fell at the weekly auction, snapping a two-week run of gains, but strong demand for quality leaf capped a steeper decline amid tight supplies.
Bangladeshi tea fetched an average price of 234.43 taka ($2.80) per kg at the auction on Tuesday, compared with 236.72 taka at the previous sale, National Brokers said.
There was muted demand from buyers, but strong demand for quality leaf helped limit a steep drop in prices when supplies were lower than last week, a senior official with National Brokers said.
Around 8.7 per cent of the 2.36 million kg offered at the sole auction centre in Chittagong remained unsold. In the previous auction, 14.8 percent of the 2.55 million kg on offer was unsold.
Bangladesh’s tea production rose nearly 27 per cent last year to a record 85 million kg, a harvest that was seen as big enough to make imports unnecessary.
The South Asian country was the world’s fifth-largest tea exporter in the 1990s but is now a net importer due to a surge in domestic consumption.
Following are the results of the latest auction (figures in Bangladesh taka per kg):
BROKENS
Bold/Large Brokens 230-235
Medium Brokens 233-238
Small Brokens 234-239
Plain Brokens 160-185

FANNINGS
Best Fannings 242-246
Good Fannings 237-240
Medium Fannings 230-235
Plain Fannings 160-185

DUST
Pekoe Dust not quoted
Red Dust 202-288
Dust 193-291
Churamoni Dust 190-261

($1 = 80.7800 taka)