Bangladesh tea prices rise on robust demand

DHAKA (Reuters): Tea prices in Bangladesh rose nearly 8% at a weekly auction last week buoyed by robust demand for quality leaf, while sales increased despite a higher volume on offer.

Bangladeshi tea fetched an average 204.41 taka ($2.50) per kg, compared with 189.62 taka in the previous sale, the National Brokers said.

There was robust demand for quality tea and buyers were ready to pay premiums, which helped prices and sales volume to rally despite higher supplies than the previous week, a senior official of the National Brokers said.

About 23% of the 1.41 million kg offered at the sole auction centre in Chittagong remained unsold. In the previous auction, 28% of the 1.37 million kg on offer were unsold.

Bangladesh’s tea output in 2016 rose by nearly 27% from a year earlier to a record 85 million kg, a harvest that may be big enough to make imports unnecessary.

The south Asian country was the world’s fifth-largest tea exporter in the 1990s, but has now become a net importer due to a surge in domestic consumption.

Bangladeshi buyers have imported tea in bulk from India, Thailand and Malaysia, contributing to a glut in the domestic market and reducing demand at auctions, industry insiders said.