Bangladesh tea prices fall

Tea prices in Bangladesh fell at a weekly auction on Tuesday after rising more than 15 percent in the previous five sessions, as higher supplies offset the demand from buyers. The average price of Bangladeshi tea was 212.86 taka ($2.6) a kg against 227.66 taka per kg at the previous sale a week ago, said an official at National Brokers Limited, the country's largest tea broking firm.
Around 1.5 million kg of tea was offered at Bangladesh's sole auction centre in Chittagong, and 7.51 percent was left unsold. That compared with 11.7 percent unsold in the previous auction, when the offer was nearly 1.4 million kg of tea. There was huge demand for good-quality tea throughout the 2011/12 year, with the average price rising to around 130 taka from 104 taka a year earlier, brokers said. Tea offered at the Chittagong auction is mostly picked up by domestic buyers. Bangladesh's tax authority in January imposed a 25 percent duty on imports of tea to safeguard the local industry.