The price of top Broken Pekoe Ones (BP1s) tea eased off recent record levels although the auction had seen underlying demand, brokers said on Tuesday. Tea prices at the weekly auction in Mombasa have climbed to record highs this year on the back of concern that global production would not bridge a drought-induced deficit in Kenya, the world's biggest exporter of black tea.
Best BP1s were sold at between $5.33 and $5.17 per kg compared with $5.60 and $5.30 per kg at the previous sale, Africa Tea Brokers (ATB) said in a market report. "Strong but irregular demand prevailed for the 123,095 packages (7.85 million kg) on offer with some teas remaining unsold (8.34 percent)," ATB said.
Brighter Pekoe Fanning Ones (PF1s) were slightly firmer at between $3.96 and $3.60 per kg, compared with $3.86 and $3.48 per kg at the last sale. "Egyptian Packers were dominant while Afghanistan, Kazakhstan (CIS) lent strong support with more activity from Pakistan Packers, Yemen, other Middle Eastern countries and Sudan," ATB said.
"The UK showed more interest but remained selective." Share prices of Kenyan tea firms listed at the Nairobi Stock Exchange have benefited from the commodity's gains and are expected to remain high on supply constraints. Kenyan tea output dropped 11 percent to 242.7 million kg in the first 10 months of 2009. But the value of exports has risen by a similar margin to 50.34 billion shillings, partly due to favourable foreign exchange rates over January-September.