The “Ceylon Tea Week” rallied around few major projects. The Ceylon Specialty Estate Tea of the Year Competition, Award Ceremony for the Factories which produced the winning teas and a Charity Tea Auction where five (05) kilos each of the winning teas were sold to the Chinese audience in a bidding system.
The preliminary rounds of the tea competition were held in Sri Lanka and 98 samples of the best teas under the seven main agro-climatic regions as well as Ceylon Green Teas, CTC Teas and Innovative Teas/Hand Made Teas were taken to china for the final. The grand finale was concluded at the National Agriculture Exhibition Centre in Beijing amid the 9th International Chinese Tea Exhibition. The First Charity Tea Auction took place at the Event Hall of the exhibition location during the following day. An amount of RMB 104,300 was raised at the first ever tea auction Sri Lanka organized for Ceylon Tea in China.
The second charity tea auction was held during the subsequent day at the Beijing Exhibition Center (Russian Centre). While all the gold winners were auctioned, only a few selected Silver and Bronze winners were identified for sale. An amount of RMB, 41,600 was realized through the second auction.
The total sum realized from auctions amounted to RMB 145,900 which is approximately SL Rs. 3.2 Million.
“Shenzhen Shenbao” a major buyer of Ceylon Teas who continue to patronize the importation of teas from Sri Lanka turned-out to be the highest bidder at the First Charity Tea Auction by securing the Nuwara Eliya Region Gold Award, Lovers Leap Garden Mark FBOP, at a price of RMB 10,000 for the 05 kilos package (approx. SL Rs. 44,000/kilo). “The Pedro Estate under Kelani Valley Plantations own this garden marks. Fuzhou Bailitong was identified as a buyer of the largest number of winning tea lines at the Charity Auction. The Chinese importer was an active participant at the 1st ever Ceylon Tea Auction in China and strongly patronized some of the best teas from Sri Lanka while out bidding others to secure the lots.
The other largest Chinese Tea buyer was recognized at Beijing Chayuan Co. They also injected strong impetus to the Auction by purchasing four of the best lots.
