Tea prices at the Mombasa auction dropped for the first time in weeks to reverse the declining trend witnessed in the last two months as the presence of Russian traders in the market lifted the earnings marginally.
According to East African Tea Trade Association, inquiries from Kazakhstan were active with Russian operating at lower levels.
“There was a reduced inquiry from Kazakhstan and other CIS states while Afghanistan was active with Russia operating at lower levels,” said East African Tea Trade Association. The rise in price, however, did not stop huge withdrawals of teas from the auction as 34.19 percent of the total beverage was taken off the trading floor. “There was a fairly good demand for the 200,334 packages (12.9 kilos) available for sale, 139,975 packages (9.2 kilos) were sold with 34.19 percent of packages remaining unsold,” EATTA said.
The Ukraine-Russia war disrupted logistics along the Black Sea -the main port of entry to Moscow.
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According to business daily, the Russian war on Ukraine cut the tea exports to the Asian nation by over half a billion in March, highlighting the negative impact that the conflict has had on Kenya’s global trade.
Consequently, the Tea Board of Kenya said the earnings from Russia declined by Sh598 million in March as volumes dropped 74 percent to 686,072 from 2.6 million kilos that were achieved in the corresponding period last year.
