Believe it or not, a kilogram of tea was sold at Rs 50,000 during auction at the Guwahati Tea Auction Centre (GTAC) on Tuesday.

This is the highest price ever paid for tea during auction in GTAC.

According to media reports, it was Manohari Gold tea from a tea garden in Assam, which fetched the highest price during auction at GTAC.

It may be mentioned that in 2018, same tea was sold at Rs 39,001 per kilogram.

However, this record was broken by Golden Needle variety from Arunachal Pradesh’s Donyi Polo Tea Estate.

One kilogram of Golden Needle tea from Donyi Polo tea garden was sold at Rs 40,000.

A media report quoted Dinesh Bihani, general secretary of the Guwahati Tea Auction Buyers’ Association as saying: “The price that Manohari Gold has fetched is the highest for tea in a public auction.”

The report also quoted Rajan Lohia, the owner of the Manohari Tea Estate in Dibrugarh district as informing that they had produced only five kilograms of the speciality orthodox tea this year.

While stating that the weather was not very supportive for production of the tea this year, Lohia said that the gold tea is made not from tea leaves but from small buds.

It was a “tedious and difficult process”, he said.

The report further quoted Lohia as saying the tea is made from P-126, which is said to be the finest clones.

He further said that the buds for the tea are plucked in the morning hours during the months of May and June.

It has been reported that it was Manjilal Maheshwari of the Sourabh Tea Traders who had bid the highest price during the public auction on Tuesday.

The same bidder also bought 2 kilograms of Manohari Gold tea last year.