Bangladeshi tea fetched an average of 208.47 taka ($2.60) per kg, up from 194.27 taka at the last auction of the previous season, as major buyers returned to the market, National Brokers said in a market report.

About 20 percent of the 1.32 million kg offered at the sole auction centre in Chittagong remained unsold. In the previous auction on March 21, about 1 percent of the 842,944 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 sources said.