Kenya tea gets into 58 destinations 

The Mountain Journal

editor@themountainjournal.co.ke

Above 102.92 million kgs of tea have been sold between January and March through the Mombasa Tea Auction, to 58 destinations around the globe.

 In a report by the Tea Board of Kenya (TBK), in March the KTDA factories, independent producers  and estates produced 37.9 million kgs, compared to 54.3 million of the previous year

The KTDA  where the smallholder factories managed 20.4 million kgs and Nyayo Tea Zone 321,754 kgs.

In the report dated May 30, TBK CEO Willy Mutai stated the 10 best markets accounted for 78.9 percent of the export volume that included Jordan, Osman,Kazakhstan,and China.

The quality of tea production by the KTDA factories there was relatively higher compared to other producers.

“Demand for Kenya’s tea, in the months continued to be impacted negatively by the Ukraine- Russia crisis, and attack of vessels along the Red Sea route by the rebels and market access challenges in Sudan,” said Mr Mutai.

The report further detailed that Pakistant bought 17.4million kgs controlling 36.9 percent of the production, followed by Egypt  5.85 million kgs, UK 3.01million kgs, UAE 6.4 million kgs among others. In the market analysis, export to Djibouti was 152,200kgs compared to the last year of 27,040 kgs, while export to Ukraine reduced to 289,472 kgs compared to the previous year of 440,560kgs.

Through the dealers, Russia bought 2,031,616 kgs compared to the previous 2,166,290 kgs of the previous year.

At the same time, between January and March, 75  dealers participated at the Mombasa Tea Auction,  with tea from six countries accounting  for 126, 732,118 kgs.

 Kenya traded 103,880,105 kgs, Uganda 13,666,291 kgs, Tanzania 1,186,796 kgs, Rwanda 7,582,488kgs, Burundi 401,109kgs and Mozambique 43,329kgs.

In the buyers category, KTDA owned Chai Trading exported  15,896,921 kgs, Global tea 15,674,954 kgs LAB International 14,279,315 kgs, while Croove Unique ranked to have traded 2,400 kgs and the least.