Tea prices in Bangladesh rose at the weekly auction for the second time in a row, due to strong demand for quality leaf despite higher volumes on offer. Bangladeshi tea fetched average of 223.71 taka ($2.6) per kg at the auction centre in the port city of Chittagong on Tuesday, compared with 216.14 taka at the previous sale in the new auction centre in Srimangal.
There was robust demand from buyers despite higher supplies than the previous sale in the auction centre in the country's northeastern region, where most of the tea gardens are located, an official at National Brokers said. Only 1.8 percent of the 1.27 million kg offered in the auction was left unsold. At the previous auction, around 538,843 kg was offered, of which 1.85 percent went unsold.
Bangladesh's tea production dropped to nearly 79 million kg in 2017 from a record 85 million kg the previous year, which officials attributed to excessive rainfall.