Bangladesh tea prices dip for second week

DHAKA: Tea prices in Bangladesh dropped for a second straight season at the weekly auction on Tuesday due to subdued demand from local buyers amid higher volumes on offer.

Bangladeshi tea fetched an average 189.67 taka ($2.40) per kg, down from 193.21 taka at the last auction of the previous season, the National Brokers said.

About 42.7 percent of the 1.43 million kg offered at the sole auction centre in Chittagong remained unsold. In the previous auction, about 33 percent of the 998,890 kg on offer was unsold.

Bangladesh's tea output in 2016 rose by nearly 27 percent from a year earlier to a record 85 million kg, a harvest that may be big enough to make imports unnecessary.

Bangladeshi buyers, however, have imported tea in bulk from India, Thailand and Malaysia, contributing to a glut in the domestic market and reducing demand at auctions, industry insiders said.