Bangladesh tea prices up
Tea prices in Bangladesh climbed at the weekly auction due to strong demand and tight supplies.
Bangladeshi tea fetched an average of Tk 216.14 ($2.6) per kg at the new auction centre in Srimangal on Monday, compared with Tk 213.09 at the previous sale in the port city of
Chittagong.
There was robust demand from buyers in the new auction centre in the country’s northeastern region where most of the tea gardens are located, an official at National Brokers said.
Almost all the tea offered at the auction centre was sold, he added.
Only 1.85 per cent of the 538,843 kg offered in Srimangal was unsold. At the previous auction in Chittagong, around 1.18 kg was offered, of which 7.2 per cent went unsold.
Bangladesh’s tea production dropped to nearly 79 million kg in 2017 from a record 85 million kg the previous year, which officials attributed to excessive rainfall.
The South Asian country was the world’s fifth-largest tea exporter in the 1990s but is now a net importer because of a surge in domestic consumption in line with economic growth.
Following are the results of the latest auction (figures in Bangladesh taka per kg):
Brokens
Bold/Large Brokens not quoted
Medium Brokens 210-216
Small Brokens 212-217
Plain Brokens 180-190
Fannings
Best Fannings 218-222
Good Fannings 212-215
Medium Fannings 205-210
Plain Fannings 175-190
Dust
Pekoe Dust not quoted
Red Dust 184-250
Dust 207-263
Churamoni Dust 245-306