DHAKA: Tea prices in Bangladesh fell for a third week in a row at the auction on Tuesday due to subdued demand from local buyers despite lower volumes on offer.
Bangladeshi tea fetched an average 178.87 taka ($2.40) per kg, down from 189.67 taka at the last auction of the previous season, the National Brokers said.
About 28 percent of the 1.15 million kg offered at the sole auction centre in Chittagong remained unsold. In the previous auction, about 42 percent of the 1.43 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.
The south Asian country was the world's fifth-largest tea exporter in the 1990s but has became a net importer due to a big increase in domestic consumption.
Bangladeshi buyers 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.
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