Workers pluck leaves at Halmari tea garden. Telegraph picture

Guwahati, Oct. 9: The colours and aroma of Assam tea made their presence felt at the Guwahati Tea Auction Centre, setting a new price record of Rs 402 per kg.

The tea sold was of broken pekoe grade of CTC variety, made at Halmari tea garden in Dibrugarh district of Upper Assam.

Broken pekoe is used mainly for liquor.

The garden, located 28km from Dibrugarh town and 430km from Guwahati, is known for its high-quality teas and consistently good prices. The earlier best price at the tea auction centre was Rs 376 at sale number 24 on June 10 this year and the tea sold was again from Halmari garden.

The tea was sold at sale number 40 at the centre yesterday, in two lots.

The total tea sold was Rs 1,434.8 kg and was bought by Golden Tea House, a local buyer.

“The tea which I have bought is for a merchant exporter. I was asked to buy the best tea with price being no barrier. What I saw yesterday suited my client’s requirement,” Manash Chakraborty of Golden Tea House told The Telegraph.

Golden Tea House was established in 1946.

Sources said the tea would be sold in the Gulf where there is a good demand for Assam tea.

“There is no problem in paying for the best tea and buyers are looking for very good quality tea,” he said.

J. Thomas and Company, the largest tea broker in the country, sold the tea.

The 374-hectare garden boasts of a rich loamy soil suited to produce very high quality teas and has made a place for itself in the hot cuppas the world over.

It sells its entire produce through auctions to make the entire process transparent.

The garden produces 6.5 lakh kg of tea every year.

The tea, which was sold yesterday, was produced in the end of August.

Last year, the broken pekoe clonal grade of tea of CTC variety produced at Mangalam tea garden in Sivasagar district, belonging to Jayashree Tea and Industries, fetched a price of Rs 401 and Rs 405 per kg at Calcutta Tea Auction Centre.

Attributes like a rich malt flavour, fuller body, bright colour, briskness and sweet aroma has made Assam tea a hot favourite among tea enthusiasts all over the world.

The chairman and managing director of J. Thomas, Krishan Katyal, one of the country’s topmost tea tasters, told The Telegraph that the Rs 400 per kg price barrier has been broken and the door is now wide open,” Katyal said.

“I would not speak much about my own garden but would give marks to GTAC which has responded well for quality tea with good prices. We have been making consistently good tea over the past many years and making good teas is an expensive proposition,” said Amit Daga, the managing director of Calcutta-based Amarawati Tea Company Ltd, which also owns the Duliabam tea estate, apart from Halmari.

The secretary of the tea auction centre, Jayanta Kakati, said the record price shows that the centre is not short of buyers who want to buy good tea at good prices.

“We are looking for buyers who have still not registered at GTAC,” he said.