A tea broker described last week’s auction being something like the Kandy - Matale train about 40 years ago. It traveled so slow, there were times if a commuter waited for the train bordering the track and put his hand out quite like he would stop a bus, the train would stop and take on passengers on the way.

Last week the auction was that slow. There was some movement prompted by using the names of the nineteen eighties and early in the mail Christmas holidays, and that there would not be auctions till 5th January 2009. As already said there was a spurt of buying because of this phenomenon but nothing that could be described as expectancy anticipating the western quality season, which is just about on, at this time of year. Icy cold nights, with wide hygrometric differences. Optimal quality weather. But nobody was talking of western quality.

The cash strap that had engulfed and devoured the tea trade was strongly prevalent which had debilitating influences alround .

Talk sessions on-going last week at the Treasury and Central Bank designed to alleviate trade problems were just that. Still a ‘lot’ of talk. Nothing tangible happened.

Tea Board purchases we highlighted last week remained in situ and would be sold only in January.

All told nothing changed. Expectant euphoria last week was short lived.Brokers reports presented a mixed bag of possibilities but general remarks included that mid growns met fair demand, with only knee jerk responses for Low growns, and Western high growns. Buyers were looking to only fill in their orders before Christmas which gave the overall impression there was some semblance of recovery. ‘Nothing changed really’, Brokers said.

CTCs ( Cut Twist and Curl) too were not quite that strong though. Except better types that met good demand. But here again bulk was relatively small.

In the low grown catalogue 3.3 million kilos were on offer. Buyers were operating from Russia, the Middle East, and north African markets. These were comments gleaned from Asia Siyaka tea market report.. They also said volume sales continued to improve but that remark was an elastic possibility of some good news on the never never.

Ceylon Tea Brokers reported there was fair general demand but stopped short of specifying any salutary influences..

Producers were still in shock fully realizing that cost of production (COP) was phenomenally higher than income or the NSA ( Net sale Average).

Total crop on sale last week was 6.47 million kilos.

This week would be the last sale for 2008. Approximately 6.35 million kilos would be offered for sale.

What this sale would bring would be quite interesting, but Brokers said ‘Don’t hold your breath’.

Meanwhile Darjeeling and Nilgiris, have experienced snow, and have stopped plucking. Till weather improves. Nothing new, but usually dearth of tea from those districts in India have had positive impact on Colombo auctions. This time however there were no positive expectations.