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Tea industry curbed by taxes, limited markets, says group

Nairobi; Kenya: Kenya’s tea industry, the country’s largest foreign-exchange earner, is being stymied by tax levies and a failure to develop foreign markets, the East African Tea Trade Association said.

The average auction price of Kenyan tea has declined 40 per cent this year amid a steep rise in production and stagnant growth in new markets, the Mombasa-based association said in a report e-mailed by its office that was presented to Kenya’s Senate last week. Value-added tax has reduced domestic consumption, while a levy on tea imports and exports that’s equal to 1 per cent of customs value has imposed extra expenses and bureaucracy, it said.

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