Tea prices continue to fall

Tea prices fell for the fourth straight week at a weekly auction at Chittagong Tuesday due to low demand from local buyers in the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, brokers said, reports Reuters.  
Tea prices dropped sharply in the last marketing season on poor demand from local buyers because of the damage to business sentiment caused by renewed political unrest early this year that left more than 120 people dead and disrupted supplies.
Bangladeshi tea fetched an average Tk 196.04 ($2.5) per kg at the auction Tuesday, the eighth of the new marketing season, compared with 196.52 taka at the previous sale, said an executive with National Brokers Ltd.
"Prices dropped again this week as demand is not good during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan," the official said.
Consumption of tea is typically low during Ramadan, which started earlier this month.
Around 1.23 million kg was offered at the sole auction centre in Chittagong, of which nearly 7 percent was unsold. In the previous auction, about 11 percent of the 1.23 million kg offered was unsold.
The national budget for the 2015/16 fiscal year unveiled early this month raised regulatory duty on tea imports by 5.0 per cent to discourage overseas buying. The country, however, has moved from being a net exporter to a net importer of tea because of rising consumption.