The average price for top grade Kenyan tea increased to $3.61 per kg at this week's sale from $2.98 at the previous sale on increased demand from a range of importing nations, brokers said on Wednesday. Mombasa-based Africa Tea Brokers (ATB) said the amount of tea offered rose to 145,391 packages with just over 11 percent or 16,440 going unsold. Last week, 122,895 packages were offered and 15,329 went unsold.
ATB said Best BP1s sold at $3.66-$3.55 per kg, up from $3.50-$2.45 last week. Best Pekoe Fanning Ones fetched $3.68-$3.28 per kg, up from $3.44-$3.15 per kg last week. ATB said high demand from Egyptian Packers, Pakistan Packers, the United Kingdom, Afghanistan, Yemen, Iran and other Middle Eastern countries drove up prices, while Kazakhstan and Russian maintained normal demand.
Kenya is the world's leading exporter of black tea. In 2011, the auction at the port city of Mombasa handled 247.3 million kg of Kenyan tea, down from 259 million in 2010. The total amount of tea sold in 2011 through the auction, including that from neighbouring producers like Burundi, fell by 4.1 percent to 333.9 million kg from 348.15 million in 2010. Kenya expects to earn a record 106 billion shillings ($1.2 billion) from tea exports in 2011, up from 97 billion shillings in 2010.
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