Before it reaches a teapot, much Ceylon tea passes through an auction. Colombo, Sri Lanka's commercial capital, has hosted public tea auctions since 1883.
The milestones below come from the Sri Lanka Tea Board's Story of Ceylon Tea timeline.
- First public Colombo auction: 1883
- Colombo Tea Traders' Association: 1894
- Colombo Tea Brokers' Association: 1896
- First Ceylonese brokerage: 1941
- London Tea Auction closed: 1998
How the auction began
In 1883, with the backing of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, the first of many public Colombo tea auctions was held on the property of Somerville & Co. Before then, Ceylon tea had been sent to London — the Tea Board records 23 lb of James Taylor's tea reaching London in 1873, and Wikipedia's James Taylor article notes his first shipment to the London Tea Auction in 1875.
Key dates
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1883 | First public Colombo tea auction |
| 1891 | Ceylon tea sells at the London auctions for LKR 36.15 per lb |
| 1894 | Colombo Tea Traders' Association founded |
| 1896 | Colombo Tea Brokers' Association formed |
| 1941 | Pieris & Abeywardena, the first Ceylonese tea brokerage, set up |
| 1959 | An ad valorem tax imposed on teas sold at the Colombo auctions |
| 1992 | Export duties and ad valorem taxes abolished |
| 1998 | London Tea Auction closes; Ceylon tea trade centres solely on Colombo |
Brokers and buyers
The formation of separate associations for traders (1894) and brokers (1896) reflects how the auction works: brokers act between the producers selling tea and the buyers who bid for it. Tea is commonly assessed by tasting before sale — which is why rows of tasting cups are such a familiar image of the tea trade.
Colombo today
With the closure of the London auction in 1998, the Tea Board notes, the trade in Ceylon tea centred solely on Colombo. Wikipedia's tea production in Sri Lanka article lists the main foreign markets for Sri Lankan tea as including the CIS countries, the United Arab Emirates, Russia, Syria, Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the UK, Egypt, Libya and Japan.
