A worker picks tea. FILE PHOTO | NMG Rwanda’s tea continues to sell at a premium in the Mombasa auction, overshadowing price offers on Kenya’s produce as international buyers focus on unique attributes.
Market data from the auction indicates the price of Rwandan tea stood at Sh269 a kilo in the sale held last week against Kenya’s Sh227 for the same quantity.
Rwanda has often led when it comes to the best tea, fetching a higher price than the others from the region.
“There are specific attributes, including quality, which buyers look at when they are buying tea at the auction and that is what normally informs the price of a given beverage,” said a tea broker at the auction.
Burundi emerged the third best with its beverage fetching Sh203, followed by Uganda at Sh114 and Tanzania at Sh108 per kilo on average.
All the regional teas are marketed at the Mombasa auction by the East African Tea Traders Association before they are shipped out of the country.
Kenya, which is a top tea exporter in the world, leads the auction in terms of volumes with more than three-quarters of the produce traded coming from within the country.
Prices had remained low at the auction in recent months in what was been attributed to high volumes of the commodity in the global market.
The low prices prompted the government to set a minimum price for smallholders farmers’ tea to protect earnings after the value of the produce fell below the production cost.
According to the sector regulator, low demand of the beverage has been a contributing factor to depressed earnings.
Central Bank of Kenya. FILE PHOTO | NMG Kenya’s imports from Tanzania have exceeded its exports to the East African Community(EAC) partner state for the first time in decades, signalling improved trade flows under President Samia Suluhu’s administration.
Fresh data by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) shows that Kenya’s imports from Tanzania grew nearly three-quarters in the six months to June 2021 compared with a year earlier—coinciding with the thawing of trade ties between the two nations.The value of goods ordered from Tanzania — including cereals, wood, and edible vegetables — hit a high of Sh18.29 billion in the review period, according to data from the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) published by the CBK.The 70.06 percent surge in goods bought from Tanzania outpaced that of exports, which grew at a five-year high, resulting in a rare trade […]