Apr 05, Colombo: The first ever sale of Ceylon Tea on a digital platform took place on Saturday morning (April 04) as the legendary Colombo Tea Auction was conducted online for the first time amidst the COVID-19 coronavirus epidemic.

The Colombo Tea Auction, one of largest and oldest ongoing tea auctions in the world, was suspended for two weeks due to a curfew imposed by the government to contain a COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

The Colombo Tea Traders’ Association (CTTA) successfully held the online auctions on Saturday, 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. dollars) a kilogram, Xinhua reported.

The sale of High & Medium catalogues will continue on Sunday 5, April. On Monday 6, April 2020 commencing at 10.00 a.m. the low grown leafy catalogue will commence on Chanel 1. On Channel 2, the sale of small leaf/premium catalogues will be sold. Thereafter, BOP1A, off grades and Dust will be sold.

Sri Lanka Tea Board and CTTA are now looking at the merits of using modern technology to automate the Colombo Tea Auction and thereby increase efficiency while hopefully bringing down operating costs.