Tea prices in Bangladesh fell sharply on Tuesday at a weekly auction, because poor quality end-of-season varieties were on offer, while supply was tight in the penultimate sale of the season, brokers said. The average price of Bangladeshi tea dropped to 142.40 taka($1.75) a kg from 169.80 taka a kg in the previous sale, said an official at National Brokers Limited, the country's largest tea broking firm.
Nearly 837,000 kg of tea was offered at Bangladesh's only auction centre in the main port city of Chittagong, and 27.51 percent was left unsold. That compared with 31 percent unsold in the previous auction, when the offer was almost double the size this week.
"This was the penultimate sale of the season and offerings comprised mostly of end of season types," National Brokers said in its market report. Bangladesh's tax authority has imposed a 25 percent duty on imports of tea to safeguard local industry. The south Asian country has become a net importer of tea after previously ranking as the world's fifth largest exporter.