Archives

Prices for liquoring teas were as expected lower, but price drops were less than anticipated. Product quality was slightly lower than last week, but no doubt still falling into the same standards. Given the knowledge that, wet weather teas will come under the hammer in the ensuing sales, buyers were closely following quality and bidding strongly for teas that had cup merit.

The BOPFs declined by a greater margin than the BOPs, and the price gap has narrowed further.

It was pleasing to see a handful of Uva BOPs selling between Rs. 190 and Rs. 238. The weakest feature of the sale was once again the lack of demand for light liquoring teas. Consequently, Nuwara Eliya teas in particular continued to be neglected, and in the absence of Nuwara Eliya character, the prices fell further. In the Off Grade catalogue, Fannings suitable for tea bags continued to sell between Rs. 155 and Rs. 175, and therefore compares very well with BOP/BOPFs prices.

Similarly, the Dust market, despite tending lower, continued to be at attractive levels. Prices in Kenya declined fairly sharply this week, and it was therefore no surprise that, CTC teas in Colombo, seldom maintained the last levels. Buyers for UK were less active than of late whilst, the demand from the Continent and Japan was also not significant. However, other out markets were active for liquoring teas.

The Low Grown average for last week's Auction surprisingly showed gains over the previous sale despite a general decline in prices. The performance of the teas at the lower end of the market, and the improvement in the Off Grade prices would have helped in this increase.

At this week's auction, the main grades continued to decline, sometimes by Rs. 10. Some of the good leafy teas however were firm if not dearer. Select Best OPA teas, which had previously secured premium prices, are being temporarily neglected. The closing of certain borders in the Middle East has attributed to the weak trends in the Low Grown market.

Source John Keells Ltd .

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries |

Produced by Lake House
Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager