Colombo Tea auction offering drops

Total offering at the Colombo tea auction this week was marginally lower to the previous week and totalled 6.42 M/Kgs. There was fair general demand mostly at easier rates, particularly for the poorer teas, the market report by Forbes & Walker stated.

Quality showed a general decline with a greater availability of the offerings comprising of fair average quality teas.  

Shippers to Iran and Russia were active, whilst there was limited activity from shippers to Iraq and Turkey.

In the Leafy and Semi Leafy catalogues, select Best OP1/BOP1's were barely steady and were mostly easier, whilst the Below Best varieties and poorer sorts declined further. A selection of well-made OP/OPA's maintained, whilst the Below Best varieties where quality was not maintained and teas at the lower end declined. A few select Best PEK/PEK1 invoices maintained, whilst all others declined substantially and remained mostly unsold due to a lack of suitable bids.

In the Premium catalogues, very Tippy teas continued to attract good demand and were dearer. Best and Cleaner Below Best too appreciated substantially, whilst the balance too were dearer to a lesser extent.

Consequent to the increased availability of teas at the lower end of the market all such categories of tea are recording a sharper decline in price, thus widening the parity  between the better teas and their poorer counterparts, the report stated.