In tune with the changes in technology, the promoters of the teauction.com has firmed up plans to convert the business-to-business portal to a completely WAP compliant site in two months time. "With this, buyers and sellers can transact their business on the portal using their mobile hand set", Mr Bagia said.

He said after consolidating its business in north Indian market, the portal is now spreading its wings to the south Indian market by offering its auction services to growers and buyers.

So far teauction.com has been offering B2B services to north Indian tea growers and traders. "With the accumulated experience of of TTBL in tea broking, the partnership will present the marketing solutions for south Indian tea. Interested sellers and buyers in Cochin, Coonoor and Coimbatiore can now log on to teuciton.com or approach TTBL for registration and further details on how to participate in these auctions", he said.

The promoters have also lined a number of value added products to be launched in few months time. The products in the pipeline include a futures product as well as secondary trade of tea, he added.

He said, the virtual exchange has been targeting a turnover of over 40 million kgs by the end of this fiscal. The major advantage of the portal is the doing away of huge transaction cost which has been squeezing the margins of trade in the physical segment, he added.

He said the virtual exchange is in the process of tying up with various organisations in major tea producing and consuming countries. "By next year, teaexchange.com will have presence in 12 countries including the US, UK and Canada. The company has already presence in two producing countries, Srilanka and Indonesia.

Teaexchange.com is promoted by three major tea companies in the country in which the Centurian Bank has a major stake. While Williams and Megar Group and APJ Industries hold 10 per cent each, Centurian Bank holds close to 26 per cent in the venture. The remaining is with the tea major Hanuman Tea Ltd.

...Satyam Infoway unveils teawebex.com
Satyam Infoway Ltd has launched teawebex.com - a comprehensive site for online information about Indian tea and tea auctions in India - on Monday. The site offers comprehensive and latest information covering all aspects of tea auctions, digital auction catalogues with valuation and last sold/transaction prices and quantities of tea.

It also has buyer/seller details, news and market reports, apart from tea related reports for the use of buyers, brokers and sellers of tea. The site will facilitate tea auctions, initially in south India and later in eastern and north eastern India. It plans to offer an array of additional modules and application services, including supply chain management, direct material purchase and offline project modules, apart from online bidding and online payment and logistical support.