Print Print edition: 2017-02-26

Bangladesh tea prices rise

Published February 26, 2017 Updated February 26, 2017 12:00am

Tea prices in Bangladesh rose at the weekly auction, snapping a two-week run of declines, on strong demand for quality leaf amid tight supplies. Bangladesh tea fetched an average of 136.38 taka ($2.50) per kg at the auction, compared with 134.67 taka in the previous sale. There was robust demand for quality tea while supplies were less than last week, a senior official of the National Brokers said.
However, competitive prices attracted buyers from Pakistan, the official added. About 32.9 percent of the 2.1 million kg offered at the sole auction centre in Chittagong was left unsold.
In the previous auction, about 34.4 percent of the 2.7 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 a year earlier, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said, output that may be big enough to make imports unnecessary.