Sri Lanka’s oldest tea auction now online
Colombo: The bang of the auctioneer’s gavel has been replaced with the click of a button, as Sri Lanka’s 126-year old Colombo Tea Auction has moved online amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over 16.5 million kg of tea were sold at Sri Lanka’s first three e-auctions between April 4-19, allowing the country’s tea export industry worth $1.5 billion to continue during a nationwide curfew imposed to contain the pandemic, reports Xinhua news agency.
Negotiations to digitize tea auctions have been ongoing for 20 years, but it was the pandemic that finally catalyzed the shift, Jayantha Karunaratne, chairman of the Colombo Tea Traders’ Association, said on Monday.
As the island-wide curfew declared on March 20 made it impossible to hold physical tea auctions, an e-auction platform developed by local software company CICRA Solutions amassed a register of over 300 buyers and eight tea brokers for its first e-auction on April 4.
“The Colombo Tea Auction is a 126-year-old institution, so changing the mindset of some players is not an easy task. Our vision is to go online because it provides advantages such as lower cost, greater efficiency, and more transparency,” Karunaratne said.
Registered buyers and brokers can use the platform to bid within a short period of time, during which sellers cannot close the bidding process.
“The response from industry stakeholders has been fantastic. The Sri Lankan tea industry has once again proven its resilience to upheavals,” said Dhammike Wedande, senior vice president of Asia Siyaka Commodities, a leading tea broker.
The online auction was approved by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Wedande said, adding that the Sri Lankan government is supporting the tea industry by designating plantations and essential export processing services.
“Online auctions are definitely the way forward and can create more competition,” Sri Lanka Tea Board Chairman Jayampathy Molligoda said.
Sri Lanka hopes to increase its global market share in tea exports amid supply disruptions from leading exporters such as India and Kenya, which have imposed lockdowns to contain the virus.
The country produces around 300 million kg of tea every year, with tea being the country’s main agricultural export, accounting for around 12 percent of its total exports. (IANS)
Tulips razed to prevent crowds from gathering
Tokyo: Tens of thousands of tulips in full bloom were razed at a Japanese park to prevent crowds from gathering.
The flowers were the centerpiece of a popular annual festival in Sakura city, east of Tokyo, that was canceled this year. People still gathered to admire the flowers, however, making social distancing difficult. “We, of course, wish for many people to see our flowers, but this situation is now about human life. It was a heart-wrenching decision, but we had to do it,” Takahiro Kogo, a city official overseeing the park, said. (AP)
Restaurant finds man’s wedding ring 3 years later
Fort Lauderdale: Three years ago, a New York couple was enjoying a meal by the water at a South Florida restaurant when the man’s wedding ring slipped off his finger, through the wooden floorboards, apparently lost forever.
Recently, Coconuts restaurant manager Ryan Krivoy decided to replace the wooden patio deck since the Fort Lauderdale restaurant is only serving take-out during the coronavirus pandemic. He found a gold coin, $100 bills, piles of mud and a silver wedding ring with the inscription, “Mike & Lisa 08-21-15.”
The restaurant’s marketing manager Sasha Formica thought it was a long shot, but decided to post a picture of the ring on Facebook.
The post was shared about 5,000 times, making its way to Mike and Lisa. Three days later, the happy wife called to claim the ring, the Sun Sentinel reported. She even texted pictures of her and her husband eating there in 2017 as proof. The restaurant shipped the ring back to the couple. Krivoy took the $100 bills and a rare coin from 1855 that may be worth as much as $2,000 for the tip jar to share with the staff. (AP)