The average price of Kenya's top grade tea rose slightly to $3.51 per kg at this week's auction from $3.40 per kg at its last sale, brokers said on Wednesday. Mombasa-based Africa Tea Brokers (ATB) said in its weekly report that 106,541 packages were offered for sale, with 18,940 - or 17.78 percent of the amount offered - remaining unsold.
At the previous sale, 110,571 packages were offered, with 22.92 percent finding no buyers. "(There was) slightly improved demand for the 6,804,230 kilos at irregular rates closely following quality with less teas remaining unsold," ATB said. Best BP1s sold for $3.90-$3.12 per kg, from $3.70-$3.10 per kg previously.
Best Pekoe Fanning Ones fetched $3.47-$3.00 per kg compared with $3.44-$3.00 per kg at the last sale, ATB said. Kenya is the world's biggest exporter of black tea, which earned $1.16 billion last year for east Africa's largest economy, making it the country's top foreign exchange earner.
Tea auction sales fell 7 percent to 87.9 million kgs in the first quarter of 2011, largely resulting from weeks of political upheaval in Egypt, the leading export destination for Kenyan tea last year. At this week's sale, Yemen and other Middle Eastern countries bought more than the previous auction, as did the Egyptian Packers, Afghanistan and Sudan Bazaar, ATB said. United Kingdom bought less tea, ATB said.
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