Kenya's tea price rises

The average price of the top grade Kenyan tea rose to $3.17 per kg at auction this week from $2.98 per kg in the previous sale, due to higher demand, brokers said on Tuesday. Mombasa-based Africa Tea Brokers (ATB) said the amount of tea offered for sale fell to 128,876 packages (8.2 mln kg) from 148,370 packages offered at last week's auction.
ATB said Best BP1s sold at $3.58-$2.76 per kg, up from $3.40-$2.56 per kg last week. Best Pekoe Fanning Ones fetched $3.72-$3.10 per kg, slightly off the $3.76-$3.18 per kg attained last week. The demand for high quality tea came from Pakistan Packers, Afghanistan, Egyptian Packers, Kazakhstan and Russia, ATB said in a regular market report. Kenya is the world's leading exporter of black tea.