COONOOR AUCTION -- 4 ::

My article in today's The New Indian Express -- Feb 1, 2015)::

SEVEN GRADES EXCEED Rs 200/KG IN COONOOR TEA AUCTION

Express News Service

Coonoor: Seven grades of Crush Tea Curl (CTC) tea from small-scale sector, popularly called ‘bought-leaf factories’, shot into high-price bracket of over ` 200 per kg at the fifth auction for 2015 conducted by Coonoor Tea Trade Association (CTTA).

Of them, Broken Orange Pekoe Fannings grade of Homedale Estate, auctioned by Global Tea Brokers, topped overall CTC market and leaf auctions when Mittal Tea Co bought it for ` 215.

The Red Dust grade of Darmona Tea Industry, auctioned by Paramount Tea Marketing, topped the Dust auctions at ` 207 and this was also the second highest price among CTC teas.

In the Leaf auction, Broken Pekoe of Darmona (` 206), Broken Pekoe of Homedale (` 204), Broken Orange Pekoe Fannings grade of Darmona (` 203) were the other grades which fetched over ` 200.

In the Dust auction, Pekoe Dust of Homedale Estate (` 206) and Super Red Dust of Darmona (` 205) were the other grades which fetched over ` 200.

“This is significant considering that the average price at this auction was only ` 79.35 per kg”, CTTA Chairman Ramesh Bhojarajan told Express on Saturday.

This photo I had taken earlier shows Prashant Menon (Homedale), Dinesh Raju (Darmona and Ramesh Bhojarajan (CTTA Chairman) 

and, this photo I had taken earlier shows Noor Mohammed (Paramount Tea Marketing) and Rajesh Gupta (Global Tea Brokers) tasting tea