Sri Lanka tea sees better demand for high grown small leafs
Apr 20, 2016 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tea at auction offerings saw good demand all round with better demand for high grown small leaf teas, Forbes & Walker Tea Brokers said in their latest report.
“Consequent to the smaller volume on offer coupled with the absence of an auction last week on account of Sinhala/ Tamil New Year there was good demand all round,” the report said.
“Indeed an encouraging sale for the high grown small leaf teas.”
The full report follows;
15th sale of the year was concluded which had on offer a relatively small quantity totalling 4.9M/kgs. In comparison, the corresponding sale in 2015 had on offer a volume of 7.4M/kgs. Consequent to the smaller volume on offer coupled with the absence of an auction last week on account of Sinhala/ Tamil New Year there was good demand all round.
Ex-Estate offerings totalled a 0.9M/kgs which met with excellent demand. Overall quality of teas on offer from the Western Planting districts showed no significant change whilst Nuwara Eliya’s recorded a sharp decline in quality. Uva/Udapussellawa’s in general showed an improvement on last. Best Western – Select coloury invoices were substantially dearer whilst the others were firm and Rs. 10-20/- per kg dearer. Corresponding BOPF’s gained Rs. 20-40/- per kg. In the below best category select coloury teas gained Rs. 10-20/- per kg and more following airmail inquiry whilst the others together with the plainer sorts appreciated Rs. 10/- per kg on average. Corresponding BOPF’s gained Rs. 10-40/- per kg. However, lighter liquoring teas were neglected. Nuwara Eliya’s were sharply lower following quality. Uva/Udapussellawa BOP/BOPF’s gained Rs. 10-20/- per kg. High and Medium Grown CTC teas were often Rs. 10-20/- per kg dearer. Low Grown BP1’s were Rs. 10-20/- per kg lower whilst the corresponding PF1’s gained Rs. 20-30/- per kg. Liquoring leafy teas met with lukewarm demand and sold at irregular rates following airmail inquiry. Consequently, prices for these teas ranged between Rs. 450 - 800/- per kg.
Majority of Off Grades on offer gained Rs. 10-20/- per kg whilst Dust varieties witnessed a firm to dearer trend.
Indeed an encouraging sale for the High Grown small leaf teas.
Low Growns comprised of approximately 2.1M/kgs in the Leafy/ Tippy catalogues, a slightly smaller volume compared to the preceding sale. In the Leafy catalogue select best OP1/BOP1’s were firm to irregularly dearer. Others however gained Rs.10-20/- per kg. OP/OPA’s too were fully firm to Rs.10/- per kg dearer. Barring the bold PEK’s which were irregular all other PEK/PEK1’s too were fully firm to irregularly dearer. In the Tippy catalogue too FBOP’s together with FF1’s gained Rs.10-20/- per kg. At the lower end too prices gained particularly in respect of the cleaner types. In the Premium catalogue too, a selection of better teas gained whilst others were fully firm to irregularly dearer. At this week’s sale shippers to Dubai, CIS, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iraq together with Kuwait were active.