Tea industry successfully closes second eAuction

• Second eAuction reaches completion within 3 days
• 2.9 MnKg and 5,273 lots of tea come under hammer
• Auction duration continues at average 2 lots/min

Sri Lanka’s tea industry has stepped up efforts and evolved to move away from its traditional systems, which paved the way for the successful conclusion of the second eAuction within a shorter timeframe. 

Continuing to make historical changes, the industry was able to carry out two auctions last week that were facilitated online. 

While the debut online auction held in the first week of April took about five days to reach completion, the latest auction came to a close within a much shorter duration due to the addition of more screens for the catalogues.
“With the industry’s determination to keep the wheels in motion, auction dates, prompt dates and catalogue closure dates and sequences have all been dismantled from its traditional systematic and extremely regular procedures,” Forbes& Walkers Tea Brokers commented on the latest auction.

The auction, Sale No.14, that started on the April 18, 2020 and concluded on Monday (20 April) saw approximately 2.9 MnKg and 5,273 lots coming under the hammer.

The latest tea eAuction report stated that the duration of the sale is much to be desired as auctioning of teas continues to average 2 lots per minute vis-à-vis an average of 5 lots per minute in the traditional outcry method.
Prices for most main tea grades in the High and Low elevations continued to meet with strong demand.

However, the Off-Grades and Dust varieties witnessed a decline, at times sharply, with less activity and in respect of the latter, due to the absence of the local traders purchasing for the domestic market. 

Forbes& Walker Tea Brokers is of the view that the result is due to the prevailing lockdown and restriction in movement.