• Assam tea worth Rs 2,300 cr sold at Guwahati Tea Auction Centre in FY 2023-24

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    Assam tea worth Rs 2,300 cr sold at Guwahati Tea Auction Centre in FY 2023-24
    Bihani talked about the larger picture and how the tea industry has been negatively impacted by recent international events...

    Digital Desk: Assam tea sold for a remarkable value of around Rs 2,300 crore at the Guwahati Tea Auction Centre (GTAC) in the fiscal year 2023–2024. About 115 million kg of tea were sold, with an average price of Rs 198.51 per kg, according to official GTAC data. 

    During his insights, Guwahati Tea Auction Buyers Association (GTABA) Secretary Dinesh Bihani mentioned that this year a unique tea called Golden Needle tea broke a record by selling for Rs 61,000 per kg.

    "We have now reached the month of December and tea production season has almost ended this year. From April 1 to the first week of December, approximately 115 million kg of tea were sold at an average price of Rs 198.51 per kg. Last year, during this period, we sold 114.50 million kg of tea at an average price of Rs 201.14 per kg," he said, adding, "We hope that we will be able to get more tea in the coming days." 

    While selling a marginally larger quantity of tea this year than last, Bihani noted that the average price decreased when comparing the two years. He was hopeful that he would have obtained more tea in the following days.

    Bihani talked about the larger picture and how the tea industry has been negatively impacted by recent international events like wars and climate change. To address the problems posed by climate change and lessen its effects on the tea business, collaborative actions with stakeholder groups and associations are now in progress. 

    Bihani emphasized GTAC's involvement in the International Tea Trade Fair and the free tea distribution on International Tea Day, which celebrates 200 years of Assam tea. The bi-centennial Assam Tea International Conference, which is scheduled for January 29–30 in Guwahati and is being arranged by the Assam government, Tea Board, and other relevant parties, was also brought up by him. 

    With plans to take the top spot, Bihani said that GTAC is currently the second-largest CTC tea auction facility in the world, behind Kenya. Data from the Tea Board shows that in comparison to the previous year's 1166.34 million kg, Indian tea production from January to October fell marginally to 1163.06 million kg.

    In addition, the amount of tea shipped from January to September was 157.92 million kg, which was marginally less than the 166.11 million kg exported in the same period of the previous year.