Bangladesh tea prices fall amid supply glut

Dhaka (Reuters): Tea prices fell at Bangladesh’s weekly auction amid a higher supply than the previous sale, although strong demand for quality leaf capped a steeper price decline.

Bangladeshi tea fetched an average price of 236.68 taka ($ 2.80) per kg at the auction held on Tuesday, compared with a revised price of 238.47 taka at the previous sale, National Brokers said.

There was muted demand overall but good demand for quality leaf, which helped limit a steep drop in prices when supplies were higher than last week, a senior official at National Brokers said.

Demand for tea in Bangladesh usually rises in winter.

Around 21% of the 2.75 million kg offered at the sole auction centre in Chittagong remained unsold. In the previous auction, 14% of the 2.59 million kg on offer was unsold.

Bangladesh’s tea production jumped nearly 27% last year to a record 85 million kg, helped by favourable weather conditions and making imports a choice not a necessity.

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 in line with economic growth.