Drop in tea and coffee exports eat into Kenya's foreign earnings

Workers use tea-picking machine at a farm in Nandi Hills, Nandi County. [Photo: Kevin Tunoi/Standard]

Kenya’s export earnings dropped by 12.3 per cent in the third quarter of 2016 following reduced performance in the tea, coffee and horticulture sectors.

New data released by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) on the country’s balance of payments for between June and September indicates that total domestic export earnings fell from Sh139 billion recorded in 2015 to Sh122 billion in 2016.