Guwahati, Aug. 16: The handcrafted tippy tea from Donyi Polo tea garden again stole the show at the Guwahati Tea Auction Centre (GTAC) today, fetching a whopping Rs 3,101 per kg.
The garden, situated in East Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh, beat its own record of Rs 2,565 per kg set on July 26 this year at the tea auction centre.
The earlier best price was Rs 2,501 for the organic green tea of Deha tea garden of Jorhat district,which it got on June 10, 2015. This also helped the auction centre to get a new record price to its name.
Handcrafted teas are hand-rolled teas. Normally, teas are rolled with machinery. Hand-rolling enables one to know exactly how much pressure to apply to roll the leaves so that these do not break.
The bidding started at 8.53am and ended at 8.55am. The starting price was Rs 1,850 per kg.
The Donyi Polo tea was sold by Contemporary Brokers. The handmade tippy tea was bought by Guwahati-based Madhuban Tea Company for Assam Tea Corporation, which has two retail counters in Hyderabad in Telangana and Nellore in Andhra Pradesh. "This tea will be sold at a new counter in Hyderabad to be opened shortly," Ajith Pandya of Assam Tea Corporation told The Telegraph.
"The Hyderabad tea market is a quality-conscious market and consumers pay for high-quality tea. The market is picking up for this kind of speciality tea," he added.
Satyanjoy Hazarika, the managing director (tea) of Contemporary Brokers, told The Telegraph this was a unique tea and it stands out from others. "It deserved the price it got," he added, saying this lot was better than the last one, which fetched Rs 2,565.
Another official of the broking firm said this would encourage it to bring better teas and also spur competition among the buyers. "These prices show that there are buyers in Guwahati who are willing to pay for good quality teas," the official added.
A senior official of the auction centre said this price was important to the auction centre, as it is going to put them at a different level now. "This encourages the sellers and there are some more good teas in the offing," the official said, adding that as these are speciality teas, the volume offered is less. A total of 7.3kg of tea was sold, with an opening bid of Rs 1,850.
Teas from Arunachal Pradesh have fetched an average price of Rs 140 at the auction centre and 2.68 million tonnes of tea from the state was sold in 2016-17. The average price for orthodox tea from Arunachal Pradesh fetched Rs 258.48.
The senior manager of Donyi Polo garden, Manoj Kumar, said it was a great news and hoped that that the innovative tea will encourage small tea growers of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. The garden plants tea on 420.94 hectares.
Donyi Polo garden belongs to Siang Tea and Industries Pvt Ltd and is 600km from here.
Krishan Katyal, the chairman and managing director of J. Thomas, the largest and oldest tea auctioneer, said this was a special tea and hence got a special price. "Buyers follow great teas. They are like magnets," he added.
In Arunachal Pradesh, in the organised sector, there are 37 tea estates and 22 tea factories registered with the Tea Board. Of the above, tea estates eight have their own factories. There are 12 bought leaf factories concentrated mostly in Tirap and Changlang districts to cater to small tea growers in the area. The total number of growers is estimated to be 5,596. The total extent of area under tea in the state cannot be accurately predicted as most of the areas belong to small tea growers who are not registered with the Tea Board.
