1st auction of tea in new e-marketplace at Jorhat

JORHAT: India's largest B2B e-commerce company, mjunction Services Limited, today conducted the first e-auction on its new tea e-marketplace at Jorhat, in partnership with Tea Board of India. The platform was formally launched by Assam Assembly Speaker HN Goswami on the occasion of the International Tea Day.

The inaugural e-auction event was conducted for Green, Orthodox and CTC teas across 38 tea gardens. More than 45 buyers bid for nearly 24,000 kg of tea. The highlight of the first symbolic auction was, Green Tea of Mahalaxmi Tea Estate sold at a premium of Rs.502/kg. The tea was purchased by Guwahati-based buyer M/s. Absolute Tea. "I am blessed to be a part of this historic sale, being the first sale of the Jorhat Tea Auction Centre-cum-emarketplace," said Bidyananda Barkakoty, owner of Mahalaxmi Tea Estate.

In the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, there was a joint digital launch of the e-auction process by Tea Board Deputy Chairman Arun Ray and mjunction MD Vinaya Varma. All registered buyers and sellers also attended the launch digitally.

mjunction has signed an MoU with the Tea Board, as part of which it will act as System Integrator and design, develop and maintain the e-marketplace platform. The platform will significantly reduce the sales cycle time easing working capital burden, and will introduce innovations like Quality Vocabulary, will facilitate Logistics and provide transparent and easy finance for stakeholders, a press release said.

The MD of mjunction, Vinaya Varma said, "mjunction is committed to ushering in efficient and effective outcomes for the tea industry. I am confident this marketplace will benefit all its stakeholders in terms of increased reach, efficiency and shorter cycle time with the support of the entire tea community."

This auction platform is based on ex-garden/factory model, where sellers using their username and password, can submit Garden Invoices (GI) and upload the tea details to be put up for auction, on the mjunction platform, without sending their tea to the warehouse. This model will drastically reduce the sales cycle time for stakeholders. The minimum lot size per invoice, to be packed by sellers, shall be five packages. The auction will be conducted once every week on Mondays. Depending on volume and process improvement, it may be scheduled twice a week later. On the mjunction platform, all important activities like catalogue closing, auction day and buyers' prompt day shall be carried out on a Monday, the release added.