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Tea auction goes `e'
THE HAMMER will finally come down on the old, almost historic tea auctions in Kochi when they go electronic on Tuesday. The open out cry auctioneering system will give way to the click of the mouse and the cold monitor screens. An industry battling against heavy odds, this new changeover comes as a thrill to many and as nostalgia for some. Says George Pothen, Chairman of Tea Trade Association, "With tea auction going electronic it does not mean the end of a long existing system, at least for some time to come. We are in the trial stage and for now it is only a partial implementation. It will take some more time for it to be fully computerised." Eighty new terminals are set up in the auction room under the project, which is being funded by the Commerce Ministry. Explains Sherif Khan, Secretary, Tea Trade Association, "The Tea Trade Association has 450 members comprising of buyers, brokers, sellers and producers. Usually 150 buyers participate in an auction. Under the new system, you still have to come to the auction centre if you have to bid for teas, but other necessary information can be accessed online."
Tradition lost
And for some, for whom tea auction has been almost ceremonial feel that a long tradition will be lost. Suresh Balram a tea taster and buyer, says that the traditional knock of a hammer that confirms the conclusion of the sale will be sorely missed, though not immediately. Sidharth Gosawami, a tea exporter is wary of e-auctions. Says he, "The grammar of an auction is that the highest bidder gets the tea but one should also know about the rest of the players in the market. Like the many who make lower bids, to test the market and are competing will remain unseen. So it will not allow one to properly gauge the market. Besides, in a manual tea auction one reads the body language. The voice, the facial expressions, and the irritation a bid causes, the physicality of it all, and how you corner a sale. All this will be gone. The brokers here get a discretionary role to play but if they get that freedom even the buyer is entitled to that. It is as unfair as the golden goal in football. I am very unhappy unless the rectifications are made, which I believe are underway." Putting to rest a lot of doubts and fears Ashok Batra, Managing Director, J. Thomas Tea Co. Pvt. Ltd., who recently tried out the system says, "With this we will be replicating the manual system. The fears of bid history getting lost in this electronic process is natural but will not happen. It will still be done manually and soon the software will be upgraded to accommodate the smaller bids. It is a minor glitch that will be sorted as the system begins to function. Presently LAN connects the bidding. Buyers and brokers will have a screen in front of them and a mouse. This system will bring a complete transparency to the extent that there will be no place for stray insinuations. Eventually, any buyer or seller registered can log in from anywhere in the world and make his bids and manoeuvre things in real time. Brokers can put their catalogues on the net days in advance. A click on the knock down button and the sale is made. Even call over, which earlier involved messengers and telephones calls, will be done away with. Immediate print out of the sale note and literally seconds after the sale you can get your delivery."
Teething troubles
The whole change will invariably come with teething troubles. "Everyone is not computer literate and this will be a hindrance, to start with," says Mr. Balram. And the problem of `flexibility of divisibility' would need to be addressed. "Divisibility has not yet been loaded in the system. It has been done manually for the last 150 years so it will take sometime. But if every section of the trade gets benefited from this e-system it is good for everyone, good for the industry." says Mr. Batra. And with that the hammer does indeed come down on a procedure that began in India in 1861.
K. PRADEEP & P.S.
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
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Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Tiruchirapalli
Thiruvananthapuram
Vijayawada
Visakhapatnam
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