The Hindu Business Line : `e-snag' hits Coonoor tea auctions again

WHEN the weekly tea auction commenced at Coonoor on Thursday morning, the system's response to the bids was smooth, though not for long. It conked within an hour of commencement of the trading and the traders, bugged by the frequent interruptions in the electronic auction system, decided to draw the attention of the Tea Board to resolve this issue.

The Board, after some hesitation, decided to permit the members to conduct auctions manually. Speaking to Business Line, its Executive Director, Mr R.D. Nasim, said the members switched over to the manual mode during the second half of the day. "Because of some technical snag in the electronic auction platform, we permitted the trade to conduct the auction in the outcry mode," he said.

Only last week, the Board had given the go ahead for manual conduct of the auction for the dust category, while asking the organisers to ensure the sale of the `leaf' through the electronic mode. Though the organisers conducted screen-based sale of the `leaf' last week, they had to give in to manual sale of the leaf at Sale No 27.

Trade sources said the market sentiments generally remained `good'. On the quality front, there appeared to be some improvement and the price level, brokers said, rose up to Rs 4 a kg. "The prices have started to firm up after a long spell," a broker said.

With the sellers deciding against out-listed sale of teas, the arrivals and off-take, trade sources said, witnessed a jump. "The buyers have been banking on out-listed sale because they can get teas at rock-bottom rates. Now, we have decided to stop the system," the source said. (Over 50 per cent of the teas were sold in the out-listed sale).

The brokers, it is learnt, have sought the Board's permission for routing just 10 per cent of the teas on offer in the electronic mode, till the system stabilises.

As against 19.84 lakh kgs of tea on offer during the previous week, the catalogued volume slipped to 17.43 lakh kgs this week.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
NMCE to launch futures in 4 new commodities

JSW's integrated farming project in Bellary

Rubber stocks may fall below 70,000 t

`e-snag' hits Coonoor tea auctions again

Bengal strike to result in `long-term damage' to tea industry

Govt lowers foodgrains production estimates