Cautious traders ignore offers at tea auction over poor prices

An estimated 15.25 percent of tea offered for sale during this week’s auction in Mombasa went untouched, a market reports shows, firming up a trend of withdrawals by traders disillusioned by poor prices.

Data by the Tea Brokers East Africa Limited showed that though there was general good demand for the 150,320 packages or 9.91 million kilogrammes offered for sale, some cautious traders kept off hoping to fetch better rates in future trade sessions.

The highest price of the best Kenyan tea grade Best Broken Pekoe Ones (BP1s) improved at this week’s sale hitting $.2.2 (Sh240) a kilo, up from $2.11 (Sh230.2) last week.

Overall, the average auction price of all tea grades sold this week slumped marginally to $1.90 (Sh207.29) per kilo, compared to last week’s $1.92(Sh209.47).

The dust grade teas were the worst hit by low demand with data showing that 18.42 percent of the 3.91 million kilos of the packages offered went unsold. An estimated 13.53 percent of the 4.81 million kilos best tea grades offered for sale this week with 13.51 percent of the 23,540 packages of secondary grade tea weighing a total of 1.17 million kilos failed to attract any bids.

“Pakistan packers and Egyptian packers showed strong enquiry but at lower levels with the UK, Russia and Bazaar active while Kazakhstan and other CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) states showed little interest” Tea Brokers East Africa Limited said in an update.

The auctions are held weekly, on Mondays and Tuesdays. There is presently, a main grades auction held on Tuesdays and secondary grades auction held on Mondays.