COLOMBO, April 4 -- The Colombo Tea Auction, one of largest and oldest ongoing tea auctions in the world, conducted it's first online sessions Saturday amid the COVID-19 pandemic, local media reported.
The Colombo Tea Auction, which was suspended for two weeks due to a curfew imposed by the government to contain a COVID-19 outbreak in the country, transitioned to an online platform in order to allow traders to buy and sell remotely, local newspaper Daily FT reported.
The online auctions were successfully held, dealing with 720,000 kilograms of Ex-Estate tea in 680 lots. Imperial Teas, a leading local tea exporter, made the first successful bid at LKR 2100 (11 U.S. dollarrs) a kilogram.
Reports said that auctions for over 600,000 kilograms of High and Medium grown teas will be held on Sunday.
The online auction platform has so far seen registrations of over 300 buyers and eight brokers.
The Colombo Tea Auction sells an average of 300 million kilograms of tea every year.
Tea exports are historically one of Sri Lanka's leading foreign exchange earners.