FINANCE AND INVESTMENT
By NICHOLAS
DAVENPORT
dock strike was over, bought at the top of the market. Then came the public agitation agdinst dear tea and the rude remarks of the Prime Minister of Ceylon. The house- wives stopped buying from the grocers—the kitchen cupboard shelves were Probably well stocked—and the grocers stopped buy- ing from the distributors. By the end of March stocks in the warehouses had risen to 1544 million lbs. and are now 166 million lbs. No one in the tea trade had apparently anticipated such a volte-face. The Prime Minister of Ceylon—to everyone's delight —had to eat his words, reduce export taxes and come to the support of the market at the Colombo tea auctions. Australian
buyers have added to his troubles by going on strike for the past two months. The price of common Ceylon tea is now down to some estates' cost of production.
* *
Previous page
