Records keep tumbling at Guwahati Tea Auction Centre
GUWAHATI: The magic figure of Rs 1 lakh may not be too far away when it comes to tea prices at the auctions. That’s going by the trend of record-breaking prices that buyers are paying for a kilogram of premium quality specialty tea.
A day after a line of Manohari Gold Special tea from an Upper Assam garden was knocked down for Rs 50,000 per kg at the Guwahati Tea Auction Centre, another single line of Golden Tips from Assam Company India Ltd’s Maijan tea estate, another garden located in Dibrugarh, sold for a record-shattering Rs 70501 per kg on the second day of Sale 31 here on Wednesday morning.
Yes, you read it right! Rs 70501 is till date the highest price fetched by a kilogram of tea in any public tea auction. And going by the trends, there might be more records in the pipeline.
Two kilograms of Maijan Golden Tips, a special variety of orthodox tea, which like Manohari Gold had a pre-sale valuation of Rs 40,000, was sold by auctioneer, Parcon and bought by city-based buyer, Mundhra Tea Traders.
The record sale comes in the wake of Tuesday’s relaxation of the upper bidding limit (Rs 75000) at the auctions by the Tea Board of India.
“The bidding for Maijan Golden Tips began from Rs 2605 and shot up drastically to culminate at Rs 70501,” Dinesh Bihani, secretary of the Guwahati Tea Auction Buyers Association, told The Shillong Times.
Industry sources say that Maijan Golden Tips are specially hand plucked orthodox teas produce, from select clonal plants produced during second flush. Orthodox teas, with rich aroma and strength, are for true connoisseurs.
The unique inherent character of the variety comes from the stress induced in the root zone owing to its soil close proximity to the banks of the Brahmaputra. The zone remains submerged under water periodically, inducing special stress, enhancing quality of the tea.
“This is certainly good news at a time when the industry is still grappling with issues such as quality, price realisation and labour wages. The trends will certainly encourage both small and big tea growers to focus on specialty teas,” he said.