GREAT RISK IN PRICE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2762, 20 February 1907, Page 29

GREAT RISK IN PRICE.

LONDON, February 14. There is a great Tise in the price of $ea owing to the Russian demand for Indian and Ceylon teas and the weather affecting the crops. £F*ou On» Owx Correspondent.) CHRISTCHURCH. February 15. With refeoence to the cable message regarding the rise in the price of tea id ■London, a prominent local tea dealer states that the price of tea has been rising steadily during the past six montus. From January till September, 1906, the wholesale price In London ranged from 6Jd to 7d a lb. In September it rcse to 7Jd, by December it fcad reached 83d, There was a further rise last freeje. On Friday, January 10 r the wholesale prices at Colombo for the product of leading plantations were 7Jd, Bd, 9d, lo£d, and Is lid. The official estimate of the Ceylon tea crop for 1907 is 170,000,0001b, which will be divided among the following countries :— United Kingdom, 103,000,00 c lb,; Russia, U,500,000lb ; other countries, 55,000,0001b; America, 14,000,0001b; Africa, 1,250,0001b; Australasia, 23,500,0001b; India, 1,256if1001b; China, 9,800,0001b, That sent to China ia mostly blended with the lighter Chinese tea for direct export fto> Russia. The present price is due to several causes. The Monsoon has been the largest known for years, and during the Monsoon there are few opportunities of plucking, and the tea which is plucked between the heavy rain is very thin and fpoor. Again the reserve that is always kept in London has fallen much lower than usual. In many cases also tea planting has been abandoned in Ceylon in favour of the cultivation of rubber, which giv-es a sff per cent, larger dividend for much less working expenses. In nearly all the tea plantations rubber is now being also grown. The substitution of rubber growing for tea planting affords an explanation of the fact that during 1906 the export of tea from Ceylon was 6,000,0001b below the- usual amount. As regards the increase of the Russian demand, it was stated that, despite official discouragement, a large proportion of the Russian people persist in their strong preference for Ceylon tea as against Chinese teas, the former having much more body.