Bangladeshi tea fetched an average price of 220.58 taka ($2.60) per kg at the auction on Tuesday, compared with 216.17 taka at the previous sale, the National Brokers said.

There was strong demand and buyers were ready to pay premiums despite higher supplies than the last sale, a senior official at National Brokers said.

About 7.3 percent of the 2.65 million kg offered at the sole auction centre in Chittagong remained unsold. In the previous auction, 8.8 percent of the 2.60 million kg on offer was unsold.

Bangladesh's tea production rose nearly 27 percent last year to a record 85 million kg, a harvest that was seen as big enough to make imports unnecessary.

The south Asian country was the world's fifth-largest tea exporter in the 1990s, but is now a net importer due to a surge 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.