India tea prices drop on poor quality supply

Tuesday, 18 January 2011 00:05 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Reuters: Average tea prices in India, the world’s second biggest producer, eased at last week’s auction due to higher supplies of poor quality produce, though demand remained good for good quality leaf, dealers said.

“Buyers were willing to pay higher prices for quality produce that was in short-supply. Average prices fell because of poor grade supply,” said an official at Calcutta Tea Traders’ Association.

India’s tea production in November 2010 rose 3.7 percent from a year ago to 93.92 million kgs, while exports fell by 25.6 percent from a year ago to 15.4 million kg, data with the state-run Tea Board showed. The average price of CTC (crush-tear-curl) tea eased by 0.12 percent to 116.74 rupees per kg, compared with 116.88 rupees at the previous auction.

The average price of dust tea dropped by 4.44 percent to 108.4 rupees per kg compared with 113.44 rupees in the last auction.