India's e-auctions to include teas from Darjeeling
Teas from India's most famous tea-growing region of Darjeeling are to become available through e-auctions from April 2012. Electronic auctions were launched in 2009 and currently sell close to 55% of the 980 million kilograms of tea produced in India. They mostly auction CTC and orthodox teas. Darjeeling's annual tea output is mere eight to nine million kilograms and half of the sales are private. However, the other half of specialty leaves is sold through manual auctions and industry insiders hope that this sales method can be enhanced by IT. As far as prices are concerned, auctioneers predict that they will remain stable in 2012 after a tumultuous few years. Russia is seen as one of the most promising trading partners and is expected to offset some of the temporary drop in exports to Iran.