Abstract:
Sri Lankan Tea industry is one of oldest and economically important industry in the country. Teas that produced within the country are primarily marketed through Colombo tea auction and then exported to other countries either in bulk or value added form. Auction takes place among five important stake holders namely Auction Organizers, Manufacturers, Brokers!, Buyers and Warehouse keepers (Hazarika, 2011). Manufacturers do not have any active role in this system and give the authority of selling their tea to concern broker. Brokers receive 1% brokerage from producer for this service (Kumekawa, 2011). Brokers and producers interact in various ways to get a better price realization at the auction because higher prices realized by tea will increase the revenue of both parties. But producer's satisfaction on the price they get may vary depending on their perceptions on price to be realized. The term satisfaction is defined according to the level they achieve their targets in terms of prices in this research. If the target is reached or exceeded, producer is satisfied. On the contrary, it is the dissatisfaction (Patterson et a/., 1997 and Peter & Olson, 1996). The study was aimed to assess the impact of broker producer interaction in producer's satisfaction in price realization and to identify constrains faced by producers in adoption of broker's manufacturing advices. Further the study focused to give suggestions for effective interaction between broker and producer.
