Commodities

Tea sales to Pakistan down by over a third in first three months

tea

Workers pick tea in Nandi. FILE PHOTO | NMG

Tea exports to Pakistan fell 37 percent in the first quarter of the year compared with a similar period last year following low prices witnessed at the auction.

A market report by the Tea Directorate indicates volumes exported to Kenya’s leading tea buyer dropped from Sh15 billion in the first three months of last year to Sh10 billion in the period under review.

The low earnings were attributed to depressed prices in the first quarter, which stood at Sh220 per kilo compared with Sh290 in the corresponding period last year.

According to the regulator, Pakistani purchased 49.3 million kilogrammes of the commodity in the first quarter representing 33 percent of the total volume exported after declining from the previous 54 million kilos.

A total of 137 million kilogrammes was exported through the auction during the period with 43 countries importing the beverage, which was up from 32 countries in the corresponding period of last year.

Other key destinations were Egypt (28.3 million Kg), UK (13.8 million Kg), UAE (6.9 million Kg) Russia (4.4 million Kg), Sudan (4.8 million Kg), Yemen (3.5 million Kgs), Saudi Arabia (2.1 million Kg), Switzerland (1.8 million Kg) and Afghanistan (2.5 million Kg).

Most key markets recorded higher volumes compared with previous year.

According to the directorate, significant higher tea imports from Kenya were also recorded among the emerging markets of Iran, Nigeria, Ireland, Turkey, China, Malaysia, South Africa, Canada, Oman, Chad and Uzbekistan.