Kenya sees 2016 tea output up to 15 per cent on heavy rains

Kenya expects production of tea to jump 10 to 15 per cent this year to 430 million to 450 million kg on the back of heavy rains associated with the el Nino weather phenomenon.

Kenya is the world’s Number one exporter of black tea and the crop is its top foreign exchange earner.

It earned Sh125.25 billion from tea exports last year. Alfred Busolo, the acting director general of the Agricultural, Fisheries and Food Authority (AFFA) told Reuters the extra output this year would compensate for a drop in prices and push earnings to last year’s levels.

“We are looking at production increasing over last year to the tune of just 10 to 15 percent ... We may go back to 430 million to 450 million kg production,” he said at an industry meeting in the Rift Valley town of Naivasha.

Output rose by close to a third in the first quarter of this year, Busolo said without giving a specific number, attributing the surge to heavy rains that pounded the country, a departure from the usual sunny spells at the start of the year.

The increased production has already hit the average price of tea at the weekly auction in the port of Mombasa. —Reuters