Tea Prices Rise Marginally at the Mombasa Auction

Tea prices at the Mombasa auction have recorded an increase this week to a high of 262 shillings from 252 shillings recorded in the previous sale.  The price increase has been attributed to the return of Russian traders in the market, who have been off since March when Russia invaded Ukraine.

The beverage prices at the auction have been dwindling in the last two months owing to the low demand from key buyers.

“There was a fairly good demand for the 200,334 packages (12.9 kilos) available for sale, 139,975 packages (9.2 kilos) were sold with 34.19 percent of packages remaining unsold,” East African Tea Trade Association said.

Russia has been the 5th-largest consumer of Kenya’s tea after the United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Egypt, and Pakistan. The outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war heavily affected exports of Kenya’s tea to the western nations, due to the blockage of shipping routes.

For instance, according to industry data, Russia bought 29.61 million kilos of tea worth 6.25 billion shillings last year from 25.14 million kilos valued at 5.02 billion shillings in 2020. The Tea Board of Kenya confirmed that there was a huge decline in Russia’s earnings in march, with the volumes sinking to 686,072 from 2.6 million kilos sold in a similar period last year.

The price increase comes at a time when the crop’s peak season comes to an end. It also comes at a time when tea farmers are expecting their bonuses by July 8 as pledged by the agriculture cabinet secretary Peter Munya.

In Kirinyaga County, for instance, the small growers under the five tea factories are expecting to boon up to between 31 to 35.50 shillings per kilo worth of bonuses as compared to 21 shillings in 2021.

The bonuses are part of the tea reforms introduced in the Tea Act, of 2020, which were initiated in May last year seeking to benefit both the sector and the individual farmer.