Dejoo garden tea in Assam fetches highest price realisation ever

A 140-kg shipment of orthodox specialty tea from Goodricke Group’s Dejoo garden in Assam on Monday fetched the company its highest price realisation ever, as the produce was sold at ^45 a kg (~3,195 a kg), generating about ~4.5 lakh. Last year, the tea from this garden had sold at around ~1,200 a kg.

Located on the north bank of the Brahmaputra at 1,000 feet above mean sea level, the Dejoo garden is one of the most prized for the company and produces 950,000 kg of orthodox tea annually.

Mainly populated with the N436, P126 and S3A3 clonal variety of bushes, the flavour obtained from this garden’s tea has a malty aroma on a golden tip base.

Prices of orthodox teas from this region are at least 2.5 times higher than that of Assam CTC (crush, tear, curl) variants, which cost about ~150 a kg.

“The produce sold to a German buyer is of whole leaf grade and is our highest price realisation ever for the Assam orthodox variant. The produce from the Dejoo garden is basically of premium quality and bags good prices,” said the company’s chairman cum managing director, A N Singh.

Singh said the global market for specialty teas had been growing owing to growing interest in orthodox teas among connoisseurs. As a result, he added, specialty or boutique tea prices had been on the rise this year.

In the first flush’s harvest, as many as three tea majors set records this year. Makaibari Tea Estate was able to craft five kg luxury tea from its Kurseong plantation which sold for ~19,365 a kg ($302) in a private sale, which is its best price realisation from the first flush until now, while Goodricke Group sold 20 kg white tip luxury tea from its Badamtam plantation at ~12,900 a kg. Namring Tea Estate, owned by the Poddar Group, was also able to increase its price realisation from luxury tea by 10 per cent this year at ~11,000 a kg.

Other luxury variants like Glenburn Exotic has also fetched better prices at ~10,000 a kg for a 24-kg lot, while Rohini Tea Estate — Darjeeling’s youngest garden — fetched nearly ~5,500 a kg for a 48-kg lot it sold in a private sale. For Goodricke, apart from its Badamtam estate, the “moonlight” prime tea from the Castleton estate had risen to touch ~7,000 a kg, while white tea from Margaret’s Hope garden scaled up by an estimated 13 per cent.

Apart from Germany, the UK, the US and Iran are other major buyers of the Assam orthodox tea.