Tea prices in Bangladesh dropped slightly at the weekly auction on Tuesday amid large supplies of inferior-quality leaf, but strong demand for quality leaf capped a steeper decline. Bangladeshi tea fetched an average of 167.5 taka ($2.13) per kg at the auction, compared with 167.81 taka in the previous sale.
The volume of poor-grade leaf was higher and that contributed to a decline in prices, a senior official at National Brokers said. There was, however, strong demand for quality tea which helped limit a steep drop in prices, the official added.
About 36 percent of the 2.76 million kg offered at the sole auction centre in Chittagong was unsold. In the previous auction, about 34 percent of the 2.72 million kg on offer remained unsold. Bangladesh's tea production in 2016 is expected to have risen to a record 80 million kg from 66 million kg a year earlier.
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