DHAKA: Tea prices in Bangladesh rose at the weekly auction, snapping two weeks of falls, on strong demand for quality leaf amid tight supplies.
Bangladeshi tea fetched an average of 120.12 taka ($1.6) per kilogram at the penultimate auction for this season, up from 118.66 taka at the previous sale, the National Brokers said in a market report.
There was a strong demand for quality tea and buyers were ready to pay premiums that helped to hike prices while supplies were sharply less compared with last week, a senior official of the National Brokers said.
However, competitive prices for the end-of-season leaf that tends to be of inferior quality attracted buyers from Pakistan as well, said a senior official of the National Brokers.
About 2 percent of the 702,367 kg offered at the sole auction centre in Chittagong was left unsold. In the previous auction, about 35.5 percent of the 1.86 million kg on offer remained unsold.
From a net exporter, Bangladesh has now become a net importer of tea due to an increase in consumption.
