Tea auctions to go electronic

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Coonoor, Sep 9: Tea auctions in the nation are slated to go the electronic way starting December, Tea Board officials said in Coonoor on Tuesday. E-auctions of the commodity are expected to bring in more transparency, discovery of fair price and also expected to bring more tea under the auction system, Roshni Sen, deputy chairperson, Tea Board, said. Currently, only 55% of the 900 million kg -950 million kg of tea produced in the country goe through an auction system. Auctions will commence in six centres with three centres each in North India and South India. Major tea trading centres of Kolkota, Siliguri, Guwahati, Coonoor, Coimbatore and Kochi will have the honour of hosting the electronic system of auction.

The information technology (IT) arm of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) has developed a customised software application for e-auctions of tea. The board expects that the IT solutions for auctioning of tea in the country would expedite the process of futures trading in tea the country. The system will keep the identity of the buyers secret and thereby help the auction system.

“Training brokers, buyers, sellers and warehouse personnel will be complete by October and we will put the system into trial by November, when the season almost ends in North India. The system is expected to be running smoothly by March 2009 when production resumes,” she said.