Workers pick tea in Nandi County. FILE PHOTO | NMG Kenya-based Global Tea Commodities Company has won a supply contract with leading supermarkets in the United Kingdom ahead of Brexit at the end of this month.
Director Peter Kimanga said the firm had secured new orders to sell packaged tea to several UK supermarkets.
The retailers want two containers of tea a day, an equivalent of 20,000 kilogrammes worth Sh4.6 million at the current price of Sh230 a kilogramme.
“We have got new orders where some leading supermarkets in the UK want us to supply them with 20,000 kilos of tea every day,” said Mr Kimanga without disclosing the names.
The company is banking on using its Sh800 million facility it plans to build in Mombasa to boost its global trading in the wake of increased orders.
The firm, one of the largest buyers at the Mombasa Tea Auction, has been trading in tea over years targeting overseas markets.
The company, which owns the Kericho Gold brand, has also been doing value-addition for the local market through its flavoured teas, which are popular with the youth.
Stakeholders in the tea sector have expressed fears Brexit will affect the volumes of tea sold to Britain as the UK leaves the European Union (EU) bloc.
The UK is a major re-exporter of tea and it buys the commodity from Kenya for resale to other countries like Ireland, Scotland and Wales. However, with Brexit, pundits have argued that the country would cut on the amount of the beverage it buys locally.
The EU had indicated it would involve Ireland remaining in the EU’s single market and customs union, leaving Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) free to strike trade deals.
