A subdued demand from local tea buyers has its impact on tea prices in Kochi auctions especially for CTC dust grades.
Traders attributed the reason to dropping prices in sale no:7 to liquidity crunch being felt in the market, leading to a subdued buying from upcountry buyers and local traders. They also pointed out that many buyers are scouting for tea from other auction centres reportedly because of lower prices for secondary grades reported to be at ₹130 per kg compared to ₹175 for primary grades in Kochi.
The auctioneers Forbes, Ewart & Figgis said that the offered quantity in CTC was 5,07,260 kg, witnessing a 78 per cent sales. All blenders together absorbed 65 per cent of the total CTC dust sold.
The market for good liquoring teas was lower by ₹1 to ₹2 and sometimes more. There were also some withdrawals, especially high-priced teas. However, the decline in prices for powdery grades was less.
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Orthodox dust market was lower with exporters and upcountry buyers absorbing a small quantity of 6500 kg offerings.
Orthodox leaf market was strong with a sales percentage of 94 out of the offered quantities of 1,70,344 kg. The market for whole leaf was firm to dearer while broken was lower. The average price realisation was up by ₹3 at ₹183 compared to ₹180 in the previous week may be because of lower offerings, traders said. Exporters to Middle East were active, while buyers from CIS countries lent useful support.
According to auctioneers, medium whole leaf witnessed strong feature and appreciated by longer margin of ₹5 to ₹10 and sometimes more.
In CTC leaf, good brokens was dearer with a 100 per cent sales out of the offered quantity of 37,500 kg. Some export enquiry noticed at bottom of the market.
