Tea surveillance

TEA: This week’s Colombo Auction traded a quantity of 5.4Mkg with the Ex-Estate teas contributing 0.76Mkg to the sale.

An overall good demand was witnessed in the Tippy’s market driven by strong buying from Iran. Exporters to Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Dubai were also active whilst buyers representing the CIS remained moderately interested.

In the Leafy segment, Pekoe grades hit a record-breaking five dollar mark with OP’s and OPA’s gaining Rs. 15-20 from last week. Similarly, other low-grown Leafy teas also met with strong demand.

Consequently, some of the Turkish and Syrian buyers are now turning towards OP’s and OPA grades due to the high price of the Pekoe grades. This observation would suggest that the Leafy market is guaranteed to remain strong into the near future.

Last week, the Government announced a 14.4 per cent growth in the country’s exports during the first five months of 2007.

Significant double-digit export growth rates were recorded to a number of destinations including the US, UK, Germany, Italy, Russia and Iran.

However, exports to India had declined during the period. Whilst the growth in tea exports only grew by 3.31 per cent, other plantation crops did particularly well Bartleet announced.