Fine Sri Lanka Ceylon black tea expensive? Colombo Tea Auction House Tea Auction Process Guide

The Colombo Tea auction House holds two auctions a week, from 8:30 to 16:30 on Tuesday and from 8 to 12 on Wednesday. The Sri Lankan government stipulates that 90% of the tea produced by tea producers must be sold through auction houses, meaning that more than 90% of the tea produced in Sri Lanka is sold through Colombo tea auction house. About 300 purchasers or exporters will participate in the auction, and exporters will send different people to auction different grades of tea in three auction halls. In Sri Lanka, only black tea is available for auction, while a small amount of green tea, white tea and other tea produced in Sri Lanka are not auctioned by auction houses and can only be traded separately with customers. The weekly auction price of Colombo Tea auction House has also become a weather vane of the price in the international tea market. The atmosphere at the auction was very calm, and the auctioneer in the middle spoke very fast, alternating between English and Sinhala, and after a few seconds, the auctioneer would hear a buyer shout from time to time, and the auctioneer would raise his eyebrows or point his finger at someone. it means that the person has a high bid, and when no one else bids, it indicates that the order is closed, the gavel falls, and one order is sold. Then take the next order, with a turnover of 4: 6 per minute.

Usually, when the demand is strong, the speed of the auction is very fast, and the atmosphere at the scene will be very lively, with an average of about 6 orders per minute. When the market is depressed, the pace of auctions slows down. Now, Colombo Tea auction House auctions a large number of tea every week, the number of buyers to purchase has also significantly increased, so the pace of auction has also slowed down. In the eyes of our onlookers, this way of trading tea, which has lasted for more than 100 years, is full of mystery. Mr. Fernando took a stack of "catalogs" of tea products from his colleagues and explained to us in detail how his company sold tea at the tea auction house. In fact, they received the "catalogue" of tea samples and auction products from the brokerage company a week ago. They reviewed the tea samples in advance and marked and evaluated the preferred samples according to the needs of the company. When auctioneers auction these products, they will bid in time or compete with other companies. The increase in the auction price set by Colombo Tea auction House is very small, if the starting price per kilogram of tea is less than 200 rupees, increase at 2 rupees; the starting price is 200,450 rupees, increasing at 5 rupees; the starting price is 450 rupees, increasing at 10 rupees; the starting price is 700 rupees to 1000 rupees, increasing at 20 rupees; the starting price is above 1000 rupees, increasing at 50 rupees. Usually, when there is strong demand in the buyer's market, or when tea production declines, or when Sri Lankan "quality season" tea is on the market, tea prices rise accordingly. For the manufacturer, of course, not every order can reach his satisfactory price, if the price is less than 10 rupees / kg, the seller or broker can withdraw or not sell.