Kochi (PTI): Electronic Auctioning of Tea was formally inaugurated here on Saturday by Union minister of State for Commerce and Power, Jairam Ramesh, who said by January 31 next year the new system would be fully in place.

The pilot auction was held at the Tea Trade centre at nearby wellington Island.

The e-auctions had earlier been launched in Kolkata, Guwahati, Siliguri and Jalpaiguri and Kochi is the fifth centre to bid farewell to traditional auction system.

The new system will be introudced at Coimbatore later this evening and at Coonoor tomorrow.

In his inaugural address, Jairam Ramesh said efforts would be made to ensure that by January next year, trading would be completely through electronic auctions. There is some degree of scepticism in South India about electronic auctions and UPASI had expressed some fears, he said.

The entire auction process has been re-designed this time and web based auctions system has been introduced and there is no possiblity of collusion between buyers, he said.

Division of lots is permitted in the new system, which will also see an increase in trade volumes. The settlement system will be the key.

The minister said by September next year, all existing physical infrastrcture of the auction centres would be converted to warehouses, multiplexes and hotels as the case may be.

'With the new system coming into place, we expect a fairer price discovery mechanism for growers', he said.