DHAKA: Tea prices in Bangladesh rose for a fifth straight session at the weekly auction on Tuesday, on strong demand for quality leaf despite higher volumes.
Bangladeshi tea fetched an average 191.66 taka ($2.46) per kg at the twenty-second auction of the current marketing season, up from 190.56 taka at the previous week’s sale, an executive with National Brokers said.
Demand for higher quality tea was high at the auction, the executive said. About 2.11 million kg were offered at the sole auction centre in Chittagong, of which 11 percent was unsold. In the previous auction, about 8 percent of the 2.06 million kg offered went unsold.
The national budget for the 2015/16 fiscal year that started in July raised the regulatory duty on tea imports by 5 percent to discourage overseas buying.
Tea prices fell sharply in the last marketing season on poor demand from local buyers, as business sentiment was hit by renewed political unrest early this year that left more than 120 people dead and disrupted supplies.
