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| Sunday, 7 August 2005 |
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Quality teas fetch over $ 2 per kg by Elmo Leonard The Uva or Eastern plantations quality tea season which jolted the Colombo auctions last week, when 41 invoices from this sector fetched prices over $2 per kilogram. Speciality tea buyers from Japan, the Continent especially Germany and the Netherlands, North America and the UK were seen bidding in Colombo. These exclusive flavour hunters from other parts of the world are also expected to make their presence soon. Attention will be on Flowery Broken Orange Pekoes and Flowery Pekoe grades. As the season progresses the quality of tea coming from the Uva/Udapussalawa plantations will improve. "Prices may well double soon," Anil Cooke from Asia Siyaka brokers said. Going by trends of other years and today's prices, better made invoices may reach and exceed the $10 per kilo mark, other brokers said. Since end-July, the Eastern plantations have experienced dry weather and warm days, with cold desiccating winds at night sweeping through these hill-plantations. This weather creates change in the tea leaf, bringing on the quality tea season. This year the season is unlikely to be interrupted by rain until October, the tea trade said. The Nuwara Eliya plantations which are sandwiched between the Eastern and Western tea estates are also experiencing dry weather and quality teas from these hills are anticipated in Colombo, Cooke said. Colombo's tea prices are expected to receive a further jolt consequent to a two-week strike by tea plantation workers in North India. The strike was settled on July 27 but the resulting coarse crop is expected to deal a blow on quality Darjeeling and Assam teas which will enter Indian auctions in the next few weeks, Cooke said. In Colombo, low grown CTCs again were in high demand and some invoices sold over $1.5 per kilo, according to the Forbes and Walker report. Off grade varieties met with demand and the bottom end of the market in particular saw a further upward movement in price which could be attributed to improved interest from Iraq. Better dust varieties also met with keen bids, while poorer types were neglected and a fair volume being difficult for sale. Overall demand came from the CIS, Turkey, Syria, Dubai, Iran and Saudi Arabia. |
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