Commodities

Tea auction prices rise as supply falls

tea

Tea plucking in Kericho County. FILE PHOTO | NMG

Tea prices at the Mombasa auction improved marginally in last week’s trading as the volumes offered for sale declined by more than 700,000 kilos.

A market report from the East African Tea Traders Association (Eatta) showed a kilo of tea traded at Sh194 on average from Sh185 in the previous sale.

The volumes of tea withdrawn from the market remained high at 20 percent as traders kept off the auction because of lower prices. Eatta said 2.5 million kilos of the beverage was withdrawn from the trading floor.

Last week’s trading recorded a decline in volumes from 11.7 million kilos previously to 9.2 in the latest sale.

Decline in prices has been attributed to increased volumes of green leaf from farmers, which has shot up in recent months.

Tea volumes delivered to the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) factories in the just ended financial year rose by 29 percent to 1.4 billion kilos from 1.2 billion in a similar period previously.