The industry performance highlights for the month indicate that the volumes dropped to 22 million kilogrammes from 53 million kilos in corresponding period in 2016.
The directorate reports that smallholder sub-sector registered a decrease of 12.85 million kilos from 26.56 million kilos recorded in February 2016 to 13.71 million kilos.
During the month, 20.21 million kilos of Kenyan tea was sold through the Mombasa auction against 37 million kgs recorded in February 2016.
Kenya’s tea production in February slumped 58.4 per cent compared to the same period last year as drought hit yields hard.
The industry performance highlights for the month indicate that the volumes dropped to 22 million kilogrammes from 53 million kilos in corresponding period in 2016. “The decrease in production is largely attributed to dry and hot weather conditions experienced in all the tea growing areas,” said Samuel Ogola, head of Tea Directorate. Mr Ogola says the lower production was also recorded in the two tea sub-sectors that include small-scale holders and the large plantations.
The directorate reports that smallholder sub-sector registered a decrease of 12.85 million kilos from 26.56 million kilos recorded in February 2016 to 13.71 million kilos. On the other hand the plantation sub-sector recorded a decrease of 8.51 million kilos, from 17.40 million to 8.88 million kilos.
“Cumulative production for the two-month period of the year was significantly low at 55.59 million kilogrammes against 94.27 million kilogrammes recorded during the corresponding period of 2016,” he said.
Mr Ogola said that declining production trend was expected into the month of March due to continued impact of dry and hot weather conditions.
During the month, 20.21 million kilos of Kenyan tea was sold through the Mombasa auction against 37 million kgs recorded in February 2016.
The average tea auction prices for Kenyan tea for the month of February 2017 was Sh315 per kilo, which was higher compared with Sh248 recorded in February 2016 and was also slightly higher to Sh312 recorded in January this year.
Improved prices were attributable to good demand following the ongoing winter conditions in the Northern Hemisphere coupled with lower supply of tea due to hot and dry weather conditions.
The total export volume for the period under review was 38.94 million kilos compared with 31.83 million kilos recorded the same period last year, representing a 22 per cent increase.
During the month, Kenya tea was shipped to thirty nine export destinations compared with 44 destinations for the same period last year.
Farmers will be keen to watch how the rest of the season puns out, to know whether they can equal the record payout of 2016.
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