Guwahati Auction Prices Fall 15 Percent as Floods Cut Output
Assam CTC prices at the Guwahati Tea Auction Centre have fallen from Rs 264.89 to Rs 221.57 a kilo in under two months, even as flood and pest damage cut production, the Tea Association of India says.
The average price of CTC tea at the Guwahati Tea Auction Centre has fallen about 15 percent in under two months, from Rs 264.89 a kilo (about US$2.90) at Sale No. 26 to Rs 221.57 a kilo (about US$2.40) at Sale No. 34, the Assam Tribune reported on August 28. The Tea Association of India said the decline comes alongside flash floods, excessive heat, and severe pest and disease infestation during the current cropping season, and that prices have slid at all three of the major north Indian auction centres: Kolkata, Guwahati, and Siliguri.
"The auction price figures of the north Indian tea industry recently reflect a precarious state of affairs, coupled with the onslaught of flash floods, excessive heat and severe pest and disease infestations hampering production of the crop during the current cropping season," said Shailja Mehta, president of the Tea Association of India. "A grim reality is unfolding in Assam and West Bengal's tea industry, where plummeting auction prices in the last five to six weeks have sparked widespread concern, putting the sustainability of the tea industry at grave risk." TAI figures put July production down 8 percent, with a similar decline expected in August, which the association attributed to flood damage in Assam and pest infestation elsewhere.
The record already shows gardens submerged across the state, and estates in the Sivasagar sub-division swamped after a cloudburst. The figures now on record are less leaf off the bushes and less money paid for what came off them, in the same season, when the two are meant to move against each other. Neither the association's statement nor the reported figures say why. The Authority certifies only what it has weighed. Whatever's in your pot this morning came out of a season that is going badly at both ends for the people who grew it, and the auction floor is not making that any easier.
(Guwahati is one of three centres in the same slide; the full Kolkata and Siliguri breakdown, plus the export figures behind it, is trade machinery. The Teaconomist covers it in North India tea auction prices fall up to 17% over six weeks.)
Sources: Assam Tribune, Tea prices fall 15% at Guwahati auction centre amid Assam flood impact1.