Kenyan tea exports recorded a decline in the January-February period due to political and economic disruptions in some key market destinations.
Anthony Muriithi interim director general, Agriculture and Food Authority said the coronavirus pandemic currently sweeping through the world has not affected tea exports.
He spoke to the Star on phone yesterday.
“Even though it was the month when countries in Asia and Europe started reporting cases of Covid-19, the country was still able to ship tea to 48 export destinations compared to 47 destinations for the same period last year,” said Muriithi.
He said Kenya has recorded an 8.5 per cent decline in various global destinations like Iran, Pakistan and Sudan.
“This decline is attributed to political and economic instability, devaluation of the currency and capping of the dollar on some of the key market export destinations for Kenyan tea,” he said.
The total export volume for the period January-February 2020 was down to 84.58 million kilos compared to 92.44 kilos recorded during the same period in 2019.
For the month of February, tea exports declined by 8.8 per cent from 44.51 million kgs recorded last year to 40.58 million kgs during the month of February this year.
Pakistan was the leading export destination having imported 14.16 million kgs, accounting for 35 per cent of the total exports.
Other key export markets include Egypt (8.40million kgs) UAE (3.75 million kgs), UK (3.39million Kgs,), Sudan (1.89million kgs) and Russia (1.54milion kgs). This was followed by Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Poland.
“Exports to UK are still among the top 10 despite its intention to leave the European Union,” he said.
Muriithi said the top ten export destinations are traditional markets for Kenya tea and they accounted for 88 percent of the export volume.
“Significantly higher tea imports from Kenya were also recorded amongst the emerging markets of Jordan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Morocco, Oman, Myanmar, and Belgium,” he said.
During the review period, 37.49million kgs of Kenya tea was sold through the Mombasa tea auction against 34.40 million kgs recorded the same period last year.
“The average tea auction prices for Kenya tea for the month were Sh225.60 (US$2.13) which was lower compared to Sh228.70 (US$2.16) recorded in February 2019. The average auction price for the period January -February 2020 stood at US$2.21 per kg compared to 2.24 per kg for the same period last year,” said Muriithi.
Local sales also declined during the period under review to 2.86 million kgs against 2.95 million kgs for the same period in 2019.