Bangladesh tea prices fall

Tea prices in Bangladesh fell sharply for a second straight week at the weekly auction, dragged down by inferior quality leaf. Bangladeshi tea fetched an average 131.63 taka ($1.7) per kg at the last auction of the season, down from 147.45 taka at the previous sale, National Brokers said in a market report.
Buyers sought huge discounts to buy end-of-season tea that tends to be of inferior quality, a National Brokers official said. The national budget for the 2015/16 fiscal year, which started in July, raised the regulatory duty on tea imports by 5 percent to discourage overseas buying. Bangladesh has moved from being a net exporter to a net importer of tea due to rising consumption.