Business Daily (Nairobi)
Sollo Kiragu
30 April 2008
Kenyan producers defied bad weather to raise the national tea output to a record 369 million kilogrammes last year, a senior industry official said.
Mr Titus Korir, the chairman of Kenya Tea Growers Association (KTGA) said small scale growers still account for the bulk of the output having produced 62 per cent of the total against 38 per cent output from the plantations sub-sector.
Last year's output of 369 million kilogrammes was 59 million kilogrammes more than the 310 million kilogrammes produced the previous year.
On the sales front, Pakistan and Egypt remained the leading importers of Kenyan tea having taken up 79 million kilogrammes and 67 million kilogrammes respectively. United Kingdom was third with 58 million kilogrammes while Afghanistan bought 28 million kilogrammes.
Tea growers' earnings, however, improved only marginally, having been depressed by poor auction prices from $ 2.03 per kilo in 2006 to $ 1.76 last year. This decline in average price was mainly attributed to the strengthening of the shilling against the US dollar. The Kenyan currency rose from an average of Sh72.1 to the dollar in 2006 to an average of Sh66.88 to the greenback last year.
Mr Korir was speaking during KTGA's annual general meeting (AGM) at James Finlay Tea Company in Kericho. He said the tea industry continued to face major threats including high wages and exchange rate fluctuations. He urged stakeholders to find workable solutions to the challenges.
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