The Role of the Tea Broker in Today’s Marketplace
Michael Chen
Senior Web Developer
With more than 75 percent of the world’s traded teas sold through public tea auctions, tea brokers are key players in the tea trade. By Yumi Nakatsugawa
Each tea auction centre in the world has several tea-broking companies that play a key role in the tea trade. They are representatives of tea producers, and find the way of the next journey of tea, which will complete when it is consumed by end users. The best way to learn what tea brokers do, both in the front stage and behind the scenes, is by visiting John Keells PLC, the oldest tea broker in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Currently, the Mombasa Tea Auction in Kenya boasts the world’s largest trading volume, where over 430,000 metric tonnes were sold in 2017. This position has been brought about by the increasing production in Kenya and its neighbouring countries, in addition to the closure of the London Tea Auction in 1998. The oldest tea auction centre in Britain since 1680 had been handling mainly East African teas in its last several decades of existence. On the other hand, the Colombo Tea Auction is known to be the largest in a single producing country. It began in 1883 – the island was called British Ceylon at that time – and just five lots of tea were auctioned at its historical start.
Now eight tea brokers in Colombo conduct auctions every week, usually on two consecutive days: Tuesdays and Wednesdays. An average of 6000 to 7000 metric tonnes of tea is sold weekly, which accumulates in 50 weeks to more or less 300,000 metric tonnes a year. This quantity exceeds 90 percent of the country’s total production.
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