Bangladesh tea prices up

Tea trees. File Photo
Tea trees. File Photo

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