CALCUTTA, June 23: Lacklustre demand -- both from domestic and overseas -- has affected the Darjeeling teas considerably while the other teas, especially CTC and Orthodox, tended to be dearer. These were the major features of the Calcutta tea sale No 25 held last week, which saw a decline in the arrival from 12,88,038 kgs in the previous week to 11,20,567 kgs. In the CTC section, sale resumed with a strong general demand with Dooars teas tending firm to dearer. The liquoring teas of Dooars variety gained over the last levels while Assam brighter sorts which received good enquiry, sold at dearer prices in line with its quality. Brooke Bond remained fairly active in bidding with Maharashtra and Gujrat buyers absorbing good liquoring grade teas.

The West Bengal dealers lent good support in the sale But the Punjab buyers remained active for the medium grade teas. There were some export enquiries for fanning varieties. The offering of CTC teas registered a marginal drop from 4,8,088 kgs (13,579 packages) to 4,50,8311 kgs (13,142 packages). The Darjeeling grade teas suffered a setback owing to the lackluster demand situation.

There were 1,47482 kgs (3,799 packages) teas on offer the major portion of which was neglected. Barring whole leaf grades which saw some limited export enquiries, the plainer sorts along with brokens and fannings found hardly any takers other than the West Bengal dealers.A strong demand for 5,51,822 kgs of Orthodox teas was recorded in the sale. The whole leaf grades fully absorbed but the buyers at dearer rates while the medium brokens and fannings ruled firm to dearer according to their quality. Middle East and CIS buyers were seen fairly active in the sale. The traditional exporters operated with vigour for the tippy varieties while the north India buyers lent better support for the whole leaf categories. The Brooke Bond and West Bengal buyers operated mainly for fanning grades. Good demand was witnessed for 1,70,372 (4,376 packages) of dust teas. The general trend in this sale was firm to dearer. Particularly Dooars grown teas and improved liquoring teas of Assam ruled firm to dearer. The remainder maintained previous levels. Major takers of dust teas were Brooke Bond and Western India (Maharashtra and Gujrat) buyers. However, West Bengal dealers along with the other domestic sections lent fair support.

Jute: The Calcutta jute goods market closed on a quiet note last week registering a sharp decline in the prices for all categories. The lack of buying interest on the buyers' part left the volume transaction to bare minimum levels. Mills were very keen sellers for all deliveries particularly at this stage when the prices of raw jute registeringg sharp fall. But the buyers, on the other hand, showed reluctance to lend any support anticipating a further fall. According to a leading trader, mills made handsome profit even at the current levels of prices as the prices of raw jute were ruling easy. The trading in the sacking section was badly affected due to the absence of traditional buyers such as those from the foodgrain and sugar sectors.

The trading in the other sacking variety like D W flour bags was routine. At close the prices of B twills were being quoted at Rs 15,500 per tonne during the week registering a fall of Rs 500 per tonne from the previous week's levels. The A twills also fell to Rs 1,945 from the previous level of Rs 1,985 per 100 bags. The overseas business was also dull. Despite a lot of trade enquiries from the African and Asian countries, little materialised.

There were reports that Bangladesh had bagged sizeable orders from Iran and Sudan in competition with India and this had a bearish impact on the prices of hessian cloth which were earlier ruling slightly steadier than those of sacking. The closing undertone of the hessian remained quiet with prices declining to Rs 24,000 per tonne from the previous week's level of Rs 24,350. The Calcutta raw jute market also ruled easy with the prices of all grades of fibres falling sharply on expectation of a large carryover of about 23 lakh bales. The next season crop, as the speculation goes, will be around 100 lakh bales. This would raise the availability of raw jute to over 1,120 lakh bales during the next season. Holders of current season's crop were keen to liquidate their stocks. The daily crop arrivals averaged at 70,000 mounds and the mills were not in a hurry to procure their requirements. At close the prices of TD-5 were being quoted at Rs 640 per quintal ex-West Bengal and Rs 700 per quintal ex-other states showing a decline by Rs 60 per quintal.

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