Tea prices in Bangladesh rose at a weekly auction on Tuesday as strong demand from buyers outweighed higher supplies, brokers said. The average price of Bangladeshi tea was 211.09 taka ($2.50) a kg against 209.45 taka per kg at the previous sale a week ago, an official at National Brokers Limited, the country's largest tea broking firm said.
Around 1.64 million kg of tea was offered at Bangladesh's sole auction centre in Chittagong, and 1.7 percent was left unsold. That compared with 1.7 percent unsold in the previous auction, when the offered volumes were 1.28 million kg. "This sale was held after an interval of fortnight owing to Eid holidays which witnessed a strong demand with most teas fetching prices higher than last," the National Brokers said in its market report.
The next auction will be held on September 4, with around 1.5 million kg on offer. Around a quarter of Bangladeshi tea is of poorer quality, and prices of good-quality tea are high compared with those of other countries. 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.