Monsoon rain hits tea demand across centres

The onset of monsoon simultaneously across the country seems to have led to a subdued demand for tea with sales reported to be lower in many auction centres.

Normally, the local demand for tea gets affected during rainy season leading to a drop in prices, trade sources said.

Dipak Shah, Chairman of South India Tea Exporters Association, said that heavy rain is lashing across the Nilgiris and Kotagiri over the last few days and affecting the plucking of leaves. If the rains continue for long, this will have an impact on production, leading the prices to move up further. The rains in the night and the morning sunshine would be ideal for the crop. Besides, huge arrivals, especially CTC grades at the Coonoor auctions, have their impact on prices. It is normal that the auction platform witness good crop arrivals after April, he said.

Plucking hit

Dhananjayan Krishnamoorthy, president of Nilgiris Bought Leaf Tea Manufacturers Association, said that the rain is affecting plucking operations and the factories are not able to manufacture because of power disruption. “We expect that the rains would continue for few more weeks and this will definitely disrupt the plucking cycle,” he told businessline.

According to him, the tea market in Coonoor has come down by ₹25 per kg in the last one month and green leaves prices dropped by ₹6-7 to ₹17. Major blenders are not participating in the auctions on the anticipation of a further price drop. They were selective on tea and purchase at lower prices, he said. With rise in offered quantities and prices, lot of teas have been withdrawn from the auction sales.   

The drop in prices was witnessed in Kochi auctions as well with rise in offerings both for dust and leaf varieties. All blenders together absorbed 64 per cent of the offered quantity of 6,33,837 kg of the total CTC dust sold. The market also witnessed heavy withdrawal of lower medium and plainer teas, the auctioneers Forbes, Ewart & Figgis said.

However, a tea exporter said that export enquiry, especially from Gulf countries, Iran, Iraq and Tunisia, was good for orthodox leaves. The surging prices of the brew in Sri Lanka might have prompted these buyers to look at South India, he said. 

Published on May 30, 2025