Kenya's Sasini Tea and Coffee said on Tuesday it sees its tea output at 7.5 million kg in 2005/06 (October-September), unchanged from the previous year, after good rains rejuvenated drought-stricken farms. The agricultural producer had forecast output of 8.5 million kg in the current season, but drought in earlier months of the year forced it to cut back prediction.
"We started the year in a disastrous way, a lot of factories were shut and people were laid off," Ramakrishnan Umesh, group financial controller for one of Kenya's largest commodity firms, told Reuters.
Sasini's earnings for the half year to March 2006 fell 77 percent due to the drought, with earnings per share dropping to 1.20 Kenya shillings ($0.016) from 5.18 shillings over the same period the previous year. The company, which also produces about 1.5 million kg of coffee annually, said it would start milling parchment in September and was now blending and packaging both coffee and tea for the Kenyan market.