Tea prices in Bangladesh rose for a third straight week at the weekly auction on Tuesday, on strong demand for quality leaf despite a higher volume on offer. Bangladesh tea fetched an average of 225.69 taka ($2.8) per kg at the auction, the 16th of the new marketing season, compared with 222.37 taka in the previous sale.
There was robust demand for quality tea and buyers were ready to pay premiums that helped gains in prices although supplies were higher than last week, the National Brokers said in a market report. About 2.28 million kg were offered at the sole auction centre in Chittagong, of which about 6.4 percent was unsold. In the previous auction, about 4.2 percent of the 2.22 million kg on offer, the highest level of the season, went unsold. Bangladesh has moved from being a net exporter to a net importer of tea due to rising consumption.