Price of top tea grade rises at auction

The highest price for top-grade Kenyan tea rose at this week’s sale to Sh311 per kg fromSh289 per kg last week, Tea Brokers East Africa said on Tuesday. Kenya is the world’s leading exporter of black tea and the crop is a major foreign exchange earner, together with horticultural products and tourism.

Best Broken Pekoe Ones fetched Sh212-319 per kg from Sh195-289 per kg last week. Best Brighter Pekoe Fanning Ones sold at Sh225-256 kg compared to Sh200-235 per kg last week.

Most of the tea offered at the Mombasa auction is from Kenya, but tea from Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and other regional producers is also sold.

Tea Brokers said in their report that buyers from Pakistan,  Egypt, Afghanistan and Sudan were dominant.

Recently, the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) refuted media reports that it colludes with tea brokers to defraud farmers of their hard-earned cash.

In a statement, the agency, which manages 66 tea-processing factories across the country, claimed it has a long-standing reputation of prudent management.

“The fact is that KTDA’s reason for existence is the welfare of smallholder farmers and it is not possible that it can watch as their rights are being trampled upon without as much as making an attempt to intervene,” the company said.