mjunction’s tea fetches higher price for TGFOP variety

Even though the tea prices at auctions across the country have been witnessing continuous slide for the past six weeks with the average price falling by 24% to Rs 204 a kg, mjunction’s Jorhat e-marketplace fetched a higher price for the tippy golden flowery orange pekoe (TGFOP) variety of the Chenehi tea farm, selling it at Rs 950/kg in the latest auction.

This was higher by Rs 20/kg fetched in the previous auction. The off take of the variety was16 kg from a local buyer.

The previous highest price of the variety from the same garden was Rs 930/kg, significantly registering an uptick in prices in a week’s time.

An mjunction official said the bidding for the variety started from Rs 820/kg and finally rose up to Rs 950/kg. But the auction overall fetched an average price of Rs 205 per kg with other varieties like the CTC, orthodox and dust also offered. But the hand-made organic tea has been the highest selling variant in the Jorhat auction.

While the Chenehi garden in Assam is a small tea farm, mjunction plans to offer more such teas from small growers, with greater variety, at the Jorhat platform. But all variants need to be FSSAI ( Food Safety and Standards Authority of India) certified with each lot going through a detailed quality assessment from an independent tasting consultant, on dry leaf, infusion and liquor, the mjunction official said.

The e-market place of mjunction currently auctions tea from 180 gardens. But it plans to offer varieties like green, white, olong, hand-made and the speciality tea from the Jorhat platform in the coming auctions.

The Jorhat auction fetched a monthly average price of Rs 276 per kg during the September auctions, higher than the prices fetched during the September auctions in 11 districts of Assam. Only Chachar and Sibsagar districts fetched higher prices in the September auctions, Rs 277.93 and Rs 279 respectively. The all district auction fetched an average of Rs 214.48 during September.