Tata Tea, which had exported about 1-2 million kg to Iraq, is going to see the year sending 5-7 million kg of tea to Iraq. Sources said there might be a drop in the pre-Christmas purchases from Russia, as the rouble is still volatile.There is a possibility of the existence of a few Russian buyers, he said.

As Sri Lanka produces 90 per cent orthodox tea, the country will be under pressure in the absence of orders from Russia and CIS, which mainly import orthodox tea.

According to trade sources, the Tea Board has a few schemes in the pipeline to ensure the availability of orthodox variety for the export market.On the production front North Indian tea would up by quite a few million kgs compared with a marginal decline in the South Indian tea produce. According to tea brokers,, the South need not worry about the exportable tea, but there is expected to be some pressure from the local market. In calender 1997, bulk of the produce came from South India.

In November this year alone the production of North Indian tea was 65 m kg against 56 m kg produced in November '97. South India produced 19.9 million kg in November '97 against this year's 18 m kg.

The North Indian crop is good in December so the availability of the commodity isassured till March, though the quality has raised many eyebrows, according to a market source. Availability of medium and plain grade in North would spill over into the South Indian market to ease the pressure here, he said.

The average auction price this year (till October 27) is down at Rs 65.43 a kg compared with Rs 71 a kg during 1997.

Market sources said this is a good sign that in spite of the low demand from one of the major importers, the auction price has slipped only by a mere Rs 5 a kg. In the last auction, there was good general demand for both dust and leaf varieties. Prices of dust were a little lower while the leaf varieties were firm.

Exporters for CIS countries were fully active on Highgrowns as well as good medium brokens. There was selective interest from Poland and Libya. Poland and CIS countries also supported CTC brokens which sees most of the demand from the internal trade.

The quantity of South Indian tea auctioned during 1997 was 153 m kg against a production of 205 mkg whilethe all India auction market sold 460 m kg against a production of 810 m kg.