GUWAHATI, India (AFP) — A rare Assam tea has sold for a world record price at auction in India, highlighting a boom for specialty teas while the industry as a whole is in crisis.
A 4.4 pound lot of Maijan Orthodox Golden tea sold for $2,035 on Wednesday.
An unidentified Belgian trader bought the tea through a local agent, an auction official said.
Guwahati Tea Auction Centre secretary Dinesh Bihani said it was a record price at auction: 70,501 rupees a kilo, shattering the 50,000 rupees a kilo paid for some Manohari Golden tea the day before.
Buyers from Germany, Britain, the United States and Iran are active in the Assam market and higher prices are believed to have been paid in private sales.
Maijan Orthodox comes from 100-year-old bushes on plantations owned by Assam Company India Limited, one of the world's oldest tea enterprises.
The company is bouncing back from having been declared bankrupt last year when it was taken over by Indian tycoon B.R. Shetty.
"Rich in aroma and briskness, Maijan Golden offers a unique and exotic experience," Assam Company India director Sanjay Jain told AFP.
Production is a "tedious process" however, he added.
"The buds are plucked on specific dates depending on climatic conditions, rolled by hand and dried in sunshine.
"The whole process is very natural and there is no machine involved," Jain said.
He said only 35 kilos (77 pounds) of the tea was produced this year, and only 2 kilos were offered at this week's auction.
"We are very happy with the record price. It indicates that there are buyers for quality tea and this is a good news for the tea industry in Assam," he said.
Assam Company India has 14 gardens across the northeast state and produces more than 22 million pounds a year of black teas and other varieties including Jasmine.
While Maijan Orthodox and other rare specialty teas from the region are booming, the Indian Tea Association this week appealed for state and central government aid to keep up prices of more ordinary products.
It wants authorities to ban expansion of tea production in at least five key areas.
The association paid for newspaper adverts which said the tea industry, which employs more than one million people, is in crisis.
"While the average selling price has almost remained stagnant, the average cost of production is increasing leading to incurring of loss by the gardens," the appeal said.
The ITA also appealed for public funds to promote Indian tea and for the fixing of minimum prices at auction based on the cost of production.
Assam accounts for more than half of India's tea production with more than 929 million pounds coming each year out of the state's 850 tea gardens.
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by Anup Sharma
© Agence France-Presse
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