Tea market stabilises
The Limbe tea auction market, which for the past months has been struggling to conduct auction, is now showing signs of stabilisation.
The dry spell, which hit the country this growing season, has also affected tea production resulting into erratic tea leaf supplies at the auction.
As a result, the market – which conducts auction at least once every two weeks, has at times done auctions once a month due to low supply of the leaf.
However, Van Rees – one of the country’s tea brokers, says in its weekly tea market report for the week ending April 15 that prospects are now looking positive and that activity had returned on the market following better rains in March
“The March crop figure was the second highest in history after a slow start of the season. Rains are also continuing as some districts have received almost double the quantity from last year,” reads the report, in part.
“The temperature is low and slowing down the growth, but the rains will pay off later when the temperature recovers, “ reads the report.
Van Rees also says the Malawi tea auction enjoyed good demand during the period under review.
The report said out of all the tea that was on auction during the week under review, only 18 percent remained unsold, with 18 percent remaining unsold after all the dust had settled.
