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Tea Auctions

By: India Tea

Following is a description of the operations of the Tea Auction at Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India.

Coimbatore, known as the Manchester of South India because it is home to about 85 cotton mills, is one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Madras may be a better known city but Coimbatore is more sophisticated, more worldly. Coimbatore is about 400 kms from Madras and about 80 kms from the city of Coonoor in the Indian state of Nilgiri.

Coimbatore is the newest tea auction center of India. I lived in Coimbatore and hence had the golden opportunity to take part in the first sanctioned tea auction to be held there. It was fourteen years ago and the primary force behind the establishment of the tea auction center were the Malayalam Plantations and Harrison Crossfields Plantations (now jointly Harrison-Malayalam Plantations). They own 40 tea gardens, most of which are in Munnar and Kerala. Support for the tea auction center was also provided by Tea Estates India Ltd. (Brooke Bonds) and the Peria Kramalai Group (Pierce Leslie India Ltd.). This was a very exciting time in my life. An exciting time in the life of all tea men from that region.

The auction is governed by an association or committee formed of buyers, sellers, brokers and warehousers. For Coimbatore, it was the Coimbatore Tea Traders Association. This Association is comprised of members who must qualify under the following categories:

BROKER MEMBERS

Brokers are the ones who actually conduct the tea auctions. When the tea auctions at Coimbatore began, there were a total of four brokers: Forbes Tea Brokers, Carritt Moran & Co., J. Thomas & Co., and Contemporary Tea Services. A tea grower or tea manufacturer can choose any or all of the brokers to sell his teas. Once the tea grower or manufacturer has chosen a broker(s), then whatever tea the estate or factory wants to offer for sale must be sent to a warehouse approved by the broker and the Association which must be located within the city of Coimbatore. A tea sent to auction on any given day may not be offered for sale until several weeks or several months later and it therefore must be held in an approved member Association warehouse.

Additional categories will be discussed in later articles.

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Copyright © February 1996