Kericho Gold firm overtakes Unilever to top Africa's tea purchases at Mombasa auction

Global Tea & Commodities accounted for the lion share of purchases at the 2017 Mombasa Tea Auction to become the biggest buyer in the continent.

The company purchased more than 16 per cent of Africa´s production of tea in 2017.

The company, which owns popular brands Kericho Gold and Baraka Chai, inched past Cargill, which represents Unilever.

READ: How tea got its groove back

Unilever has consistently been the biggest buyer at the auction for more than 25 years.

Global Tea purchased 59.89 million kilogrammes of tea during 2017, an increase from 51.6 million kgs in 2016.

Unilever came second with 59.1 million kgs in 2017, a drop from 62.3 million kgs in the previous year.

LAB International was third with 31.8 million kgs and Chai Trading, an arm of Kenya Tea Development Agency, came in the fourth position with 31.4 million kgs.

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Product diversity

Global Tea's managing director, Fahim Ahmed, attributed the growth to diversity of their products.

He said the achievement was out of the culture of “striving for success” within the organisation.

Global tea's products include Functional Teas in its Health & Wellness range, blends of teas and herbs in the specialty range and funky flavours.

Trendy tag Lines on various tea flavours like “Set the Mood and Seize the Moment” for Love Tea and “Delete, Fast Forward .... Hit Play” for Hangover Tea, used on the packaging have attracted millennials.

Besides Kericho Gold and Baraka Chai, which are already the most popular brands, Global Tea also own Gold Crown Foods EPZ