Commodities

Tea agency in Sh60m Moscow marketing campaign

TEA

A tea plantation worker in Kenya. FILE PHOTO | NMG

Kenya has launched a Sh60 million tea marketing campaign in Russia as the country seeks to double sale of the beverage in the European nation to help cut dependency on traditional markets.

The strategy is to create and raise awareness among Russians about Kenya’s quality tea. Russia is the leading buyer of tea in the world while Kenya is number one exporter of black tea.

Kenya’s acting Ambassador to Russia Hillary Kyengo led the officials from the tea Directorate in launching the Tea Promotion Strategy dubbed “Think Tea Make it Kenya”.

The Tea Directorate has hired a consultant who is conducting promotion in the next three years. "The campaign will run for five years and we expect it to double the volumes that we are currently exporting to Russia in the next five years," says the directorate.

Russian imports have been dropping to currently stand at less than 20 million kilogrammes a year from 28 million kilos in 2014.

READ: Tea exports to major markets down 13pc in the last year

The directorate says by increasing the volumes in Russia, the prices of the commodity will be stable enhancing farmers’ earnings.

According to the agency, the current low prices at the auction is as a result of the dependency on a few traditional markets that buy almost the same volumes annually.

The price of tea at the auction is at a three-year low following dismal performance in the last couple of months occasioned by oversupply of green leaf due to favourable weather conditions.