Tea prices in Bangladesh fell at the weekly auction on Tuesday, snapping a three-week run of gains due to higher volume of poor grades on offer, but strong demand for quality leaf capped the slide.
Bangladeshi tea fetched an average 193.38 taka ($2.44) per kg at the 35th auction of this marketing season, slightly down from 193.87 taka in the previous sale, a National Brokers executive said.
About 1.81 million kg were offered at the sole auction centre in the port city of Chittagong, of 
which 23 percent went unsold. In the previous auction, about 24 percent of the 2.02 million kg offered was unsold.
Supplies were lower than last week and that included a higher percentage of low grade leaf, the executive said, adding that strong demand for quality tea limited the fall.
Typically demand for tea rises in Bangladesh during the winter.
The national budget for the 2015/16 fiscal year, which began in July, raised the regulatory duty on tea imports by 5 percent to discourage overseas buying.
Tea prices fell sharply in the last marketing season due to weak demand from local buyers, as business sentiment was hit by renewed political unrest early this year that left more than 120 people dead and disrupted supplies.
The country has moved from being a net exporter to a net importer of tea due to rising consumption.
Following are the results of the latest auction (figures in Bangladesh taka per kg):
BROKENS
Bold/Large Brokens 180-190
Medium Brokens 184-190
Small Brokens 188-194
Plain Brokens 135-145
FANNINGS
Best Fannings 200-205
Good Fannings 195-199
Medium Fannings 182-187
Plain Fannings 130-140
DUST
Pekoe Dust 206-207
Red Dust 145-200
Dust 160-228
Churamoni Dust 150-226
-Reuters
($1 = 77.7300 taka)
