Tea prices in Bangladesh fell around 7 percent on Tuesday on subdued demand and lower supply of premier-quality leaf and sales dropped despite the lower volume on offer, brokers said. Bangladeshi tea fetched an average of 193.21 taka ($2.40) per kg, down from 208.47 taka at the last auction of the previous season, which was the first sale of the new marketing season, the National Brokers said.

"Demand was sluggish as market opened and prices continued to decline with the progress of the sale," it said in its market report. About 33 percent of the 998,890 kg offered at the sole auction centre in Chittagong remained unsold. In the previous auction, about 20 percent of the 1.32 million kg on offer was unsold. Bangladesh's tea output in 2016 rose by nearly 27 percent from a year earlier to a record 85 million kg.

Copyright Reuters, 2017