Dar es Salaam — A TOTAL of 7,121,188.70 kgs of tea was sold on Monday at the Mombasa Tea auction in Kenya, where 264,932 kgs was from Tanzania.

Offerings from participating countries totalled 7,922,177.70 kgs compared to the 9,883,852.20 kgs sold in the same period last year.

A report from the African Tea brokers indicated that there was good but irregular demand for the beverage at the auction which, however, eased as sale progressed.

Auction hosts Kenya as usual led in the amounts on offer at 6,138,963 kg whereby 5,324,895 kg of the same was sold at an average price of US$ 2.42 for both the primary and main grades of tea.

Uganda managed to sell 956,771 kg at US$ 1.92 from initial offerings that totalled 962,862 kg while Rwanda had offered 372,529.20 kg at the auction sold 368,992.20 kg which attracted an average price of US$ 2.29.

Burundi offered much less at 120,217 kg and managed to sell 116,535.50 kg at US$ 2.1, while Tanzania managed to sell 264,932 kg from offerings at an average auction price of US$ 1.66 per kg.

DR Congo sold all its 48,075 kgs of tea at US$ 1.23, while Madagascar who offered 5,160 kgs managed to sell 3,768 kgs at US$ 1.88.

Malawi was also lucky to sell all its 37,220 kg of both main and secondary grades of tea at US$ 1.16.

The report indicates that there was good support from Sudan, Yemen and other Middle East countries.