Bangladesh tea prices edge higher amid tight supplies

DHAKA: Tea prices in Bangladesh edged marginally higher at a weekly auction as volumes on offer dropped.

Bangladeshi tea fetched an average of 279.38 taka ($2.7) per kg at the auction centre in Srimangal on Wednesday, after a fortnight gap for the Eid holidays.

That was slightly higher compared with an average price of 279.29 taka at the previous sale, held in the port city of Chittagong.

Demand for quality tea was solid at Srimangal, in the country's northeastern region where most of the tea gardens are located, said an official at National Brokers.

About 2.1 percent of the 2.24 million kg offered in the auction was left unsold. At the previous auction, around 2.29 million kg was offered, of which 4.7 percent went unsold.

Bangladesh's tea production dropped to nearly 79 million kg in 2017 from a record 85 million kg the previous year, which officials had attributed to excessive rainfall.

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 in line with economic growth.