Kenyan tea prices slipped generally at this week's auction in the port city of Mombasa with reduced demand from many international buyers, market players said on Wednesday. Africa Tea Brokers (ATB) said in a weekly market report there was "less demand for the 117,440 packages (7.63 million kgs) on offer at much easier levels with many teas withdrawn".
ATB said more than a third of the tea on offer went unsold. Kenya is the world's biggest exporter of black tea. East Africa's biggest economy has forecast that it will earn a record 50 billion shillings ($655 million) from the sector in 2008. Top BP1s were sold at $3.45-$3.10, up slightly from $3.32-$3.14 at the previous auction, but lower quality BP1s slipped with many lines left unsold. Best PF1s slipped to $2.60-$2.12 from $2.75-$2.44 at last week's sale.
ATB said there was reduced activity from Pakistan Packers, Egyptian Packers, Afghanistan, Yemen, other Middle Eastern countries and Kazakhstan while the Bazaar maintained interest there were fair inquiries from the UK. It said there was very little activity from Sudan, Russia and the Egyptian government sector were quiet while Somalia was active at lower levels.
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