Has Tea Auctions outlived it's utility ?

Fresh garden tea : 'Direct from the bush to your cup' seems to be the perfect route that every tea lover wishes for the cup that brings cheers to him . It is also a fact that most upcoming tea brands are today screaming from their rooftops emphasising how they have leveraged and tweaked their respective supply chains to reach the freshly produced teas from the plantations to the cup of the consumer as fast as possible, thus eliminating possibility of any unwanted delays in this race that may have even the slightest impact on the freshness and quality of the tea . Well done sellers and brand owners , well almost . You are delivering the perfect brew to your audience and that is a laudable effort and as any tea drinker , I am not only impressed but extremely happy about .

The underline essence in this leap forward in reaching the consumer is obvious in the fact that the brand is securing the teas direct from the gardens without having to go through the rigmarole of the tea auctions, thus eliminating delays of procedures and interim storage requirements that are mandatory in it.

Does this mean that the tea auctions have outlived it's utility in the present day context . Well , no , not exactly. The tea auctions are a robust , time tested and transparent system that has lasted over centuries now , capable of handling millions of kilograms of tea that are knocked down under it's hammer in a couple of hours . It remains the perfect and most scientific channel for disposing huge volumes of teas to the cross section of the tea trade and global markets at the fairest price , which may not be possible to handle in today's mantra of ' Direct from bush to cup'.

So whilst the newest concept of delivering the freshest cup of tea from the garden to the consumer shall remain as the most touted and in great demand for the tea lovers , the tea auctions shall continue to play the vital role of being the most effective channel of distribution of large scale volumes of teas from the plantation sector to the trade .

The tea auctions have a long heritage and given below is the history of establishment of the Global auction centres in chronological order :

1. LONDON - 1839. Closed down in 1998
2. KOLKATA - 1861
3. COLOMBO - 1883
4. KOCHI - 1947
5. 5. CHITTAGONG - 1949
6. MOMBASA - 1969 ( set up in NAIROBI in 1956 , later moved to MOMBASA )
7. COONOOR - 1963
8. AMRITSAR - 1964
9. LIMBE - 1970
10. GUWAHATI - 1970
11. DJAKARTA - 1972
12. SILIGURI - 1976
13. COIMBATORE - 1980
14. SINGAPORE - 1981. Closed down since.

GTAC - The Guwahati Tea Auction Centre is one of the busiest tea trading facilities , It is the largest CTC tea auction centre in the world.