Dar es Salaam — A TOTAL of 3,901,623.00 kilogrammes of tea was sold last week of August at the Mombasa Tea auction in Kenya, where among them 127,940.50 kilogrammes of the sold tea was from Tanzania; a slight drop from the previous weeks 163,567.50 kilogrammes sold at the market.

Offerings during the week totalled 80,628 packages (4,904,675.10 kilos) against 82,496 packages (5,198,722.00 kilos) for the same period last year, representing a significant drop in tea supply.

According to the auction report by African tea brokers association, there was fair general demand for the 4,904,675 kilos on offer at irregular rates closely following quality with 24.68 per cent of the teas remaining unsold.

Auction hosts Kenya led in the amounts on offer at 3,059,694.00kgs where by 2,566,698.00kgs of the same was sold at an average price of USD 2.77 for both the primary and secondary grades of tea.

Uganda managed to sell 721,242.00kg from initial offerings that totalled 1,049,812.00kgs, attracting an average auction price of USD 1.60 per kilogramme while Rwanda had offered 293,178.60kgs of tea and managed to sell 233,876.00kgs at an average price of USD 2.78 per kilogramme.

Burundi had offered182,217.00kgs at the auction and managed to sell 152,140.50 kilogramme at an auction price of USD 2.57 per kilogramme , while Tanzania managed to sell 127,940.50 kg of tea from offerings of 182,144.50 kilos at an average auction price of USD 1.34 per kg.

Mozambique had offered 97,253.00kgs of tea and managed to sell59,350.00kgs while DR Congo had offered 6,776.00kgs of tea at the market and Malawi had offered 33,600.00kgs of tea and the two countries were able to sell all their teas. Madagascar and Zambia did not make any offerings during last week's auction.

Brighter BP1s saw less interest easing by USC17 to 65 while mediums were discounted by USC10 to 50; lower mediums met better enquiry at firm to USC40 easier. Plainer sorts were a weak feature opening at USC10 dearer but closed at firm to USC50 lower with many teas remaining unsold.

Brighter PF1s saw an irregular interest ranging between USC20 dearer for improved invoices to easier by USC8 to 10 while mediums were well competed for and improved color lines gained USC8 to 15 but others were irregularly easier by a similar margin; lower mediums were irregular ranging between USC5 to 30 below last prices to dearer by up to USC28.

Pakistan Packers were dominant while UK was more active but remained selective with more interest from Egyptian Packers, Yemen and other Middle Eastern countries but at lower levels.

Sudan maintained activity while Kazakhstan (CIS) was operating at lower levels. Afghanistan, Russia, Bazaar and Iran were quiet. Somalia was fairly active.