Tea auctions this week

Friday, 12 January 2018 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Forbes and

Walker Tea Brokers

The second sale of the year concluded had on offer a total of 6.1m/kg. Improved demand particularly for the High & Mid Grown small leaf teas.

Ex-Estate offerings totalled a 0.8m/kg whilst quality of offerings showed no significant change. There was strong demand particularly for the BOPF grade. Best Westerns BOP’s – select invoices gained up to Rs. 20 per kg following special inquiry, others together with teas in the below best and plainer category mostly sold around last week’s levels. The corresponding BOPF gained by Rs. 10-20 per kg whilst the plainer clean leaf types appreciating even further. Nuwara Eliya BOPs met with much less demand and consequently declined substantially whilst corresponding BOPF were irregularly dearer. Uva/Udapussellawa were generally firm. CTC BP1’s gained a Rs. 10-20 per kg whilst the PF1’s with the exception of the Low Grown types that were firm gained Rs. 10 per kg. As anticipated there was improved activity all round with the tea world settling down to regular business following the seasonal vacation.

Low Growns totalled approximately 2.8m/kg in the Leafy/Tippy catalogues. There was good general demand. In the Leafy catalogue BOP1/OP1’s sold at fully firm to dearer rates with the lower end of the market in particular gaining fairly substantially. OP/OPA’s too were fully firm to dearer. Here again the bottom end of the market gained Rs. 10-20 per kg and more. Meanwhile better PEK’s were barely steady, others and PEK1’s were fully firm to dearer. In the Tippy catalogue FBOP’s were fully firm to dearer whilst a select range of well-made FF1’s too were mostly firm, others were barely steady following quality. In the Premium catalogue too well-made teas were fully firm whilst others were irregular. There was good demand from shippers to Turkey, CIS, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Dubai.