"Much of the quantity on offer was of poor quality and buyers were reluctant to bid on such lots," the Indian Coffee Traders' Association (ICTA) market report said. "The sale witnessed fair demand at lower rates."

The auctions posted sales of 23.84 per cent of the total 723.36 tonnes of coffee offered, down from 28.10 per cent of 738.31 tonnes last week.

Arabicas reversed positions with robusta variety coffee over last week. Only 19.66 per cent of the offered 452.77 tonnes of arabicas were sold, down from 31.08 per cent of 518.48 tonnes last week.

Robustas bettered their positions over last week with 30.80 per cent sales of 270.58 tonnes offered. Last week, only 21.05 per cent of 219.83 tonnes offered at the auctions were sold.

Meanwhile other grades quoted prices lower by three to Rs 5 per kg over last week's levels. This, the report said,was due to concerns over the quality of coffee offered.

Robustas were also similarly lower by up to Rs 2 to 4 per kg over last week's rates."

Plantation A grade coffee was sold for an average price level of Rs 98.96 per kg, down from Rs 100.89 per kg last week. Plantation PB grade however rose to Rs 119.65 per kg from Rs 115.06 per kg last week.

Robusta cherry AB grade too dipped to Rs 72.39 per kg from Rs 74.67 per kg.

Prices of both arabicas and robustas were Rs 50 to 450 higher than international levels per 50 kg bag, the report said.