Tea auctioneers form body to safeguard trade interests

Tea auctioneers from the northern and southern parts of the country have joined hands to form an umbrella body to safeguard their interests. The body, christened Association of Tea Auctioneers (ATA), will also work for the smooth functioning of the auctioning system in the country.

As many as 13 tea auctioneers licensed by the Tea Board, including majors J Thomas, Contemporary Brokers and Parcon formed the ATA. According to ATA secretary Sujit Patra, there was no formal institution so far for the auctioneers to deal with issues collectively for the overall benefit of the trade.

The newly-formed body will liaison with the central and governments of tea-growing states and also with regulatory authorities like the Tea Board. The erstwhile practice of manual auction of tea has been replaced with electronic auction since 2008-09 and now prevails in both north and south India. The association arranged a ceremonial manual auction of around 650 lots of Assam orthodox tea totalling 3.60 lakh kg on Friday.

S B Shah, chairman of leading tea exporter Shah Brothers, said that tea auction prices are depressed this year due to geo-political tensions. Exports too have come down. However, Indian tea exporters have been able to enter new markets like Turkey, Jordan and certain CIS countries, he said.