The highest price for top grade Kenyan tea rose slightly to $3.16 per kg at this week's sale from $3.00 per kg last week, Tea Brokers East Africa said on Wednesday. Kenya is the leading world exporter of black tea and the crop is a leading foreign exchange earner for east Africa's largest economy, together with horticulture and tourism.
Prices for Best Broken Pekoe Ones (BP1s) sold at $2.57-$3.16 per kg compared with $2.45-$3.00 per kg last week, Tea Brokers said in its market report. Best Brighter Pekoe Fanning Ones (PF1s) fetched $2.30-$2.62 per kg from $2.15-$2.60 per kg at the last sale.
Tea Brokers said 7.54 percent of the 117,489 packages, or 7.59 million kg, remained unsold. Last week 16.47 percent of the 130,808 packages, or 8.42 million kg, of tea offered was left unsold. Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, other Middle Eastern countries, Britain and Kazakhstan bought more tea than last week. Most of the tea offered at the Mombasa auction is from Kenya, but it also sells tea from Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and other regional producers. The Tea Board of Kenya said earnings from rose 2 percent to 114.4 billion shillings ($1.3 billion), while total output jumped 17 percent to a record 432.4 million kg.