Most of the auctions of tea on offer in this week held on Tuesday were sold out as the local market was found aggressive.

"Because of the strong internal demand, the withdrawal of tea auctions comes to a negligible level, say to 10-15 percent, and the rest 85-90 percent are sold out," said an auctioneer yesterday.

Among the foreign buyers Pakistan and Confederation of Independent States (CIS) took part in the auction but they bought only a small portion of the total tea production.

Sources said all the internal buyers, blenders and loose tea traders lent strong support for high-quality, good and average tea to ensure a good market for another week. As a result the blenders or packers like HRC, Duncan, Ispahani and others have increased Tk 5-10 on every kg of tea.

"Despite the price hike the tea-connoisseurs haven't lost interest rather they are showing intense interest for all types of tea, except for the end-season-type," market sources said.

They said the demand for tea would rise further in the six remaining auctions of the season this year and the trend would leave a positive impact on the next season.

A total of around 25,500 chests of tea were offered this week. 22,000 chests of them were leaf tea and the remaining were dust tea.

The average price of tea this season is almost Tk 80.00 per kg while it was Tk 62-63 at the same period last season, sources said.

This week, every kg of high-quality tea is auctioned at Tk 110-120 while the good type of tea is sold at Tk 90-110 and plain type at Tk 70-90 in the auction market, they said.