Tea prices fall further as buyers hold orders
Workers pick tea leaves at a farm in Nyeri town in this picture taken on February 8, 2021.
The average price of tea during this weeks’ Mombasa auction dipped further settling at $2.30 (Sh262.57) a kilogramme hurt by poor demand by buyers.
Although this was a marginal seven percent drop from last week’s average price of $2.46 (Sh280.85), the massive volume of tea that went unsold during the auction points to a likelihood of a bearish performance in the short-term.
The average price was noticeably lower than the $2.43 (Sh277.32) per kilogramme minimum reserve price set by the government for tea owned by farmers affiliated to the giant Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA).
Data by the East Tea Brokers Limited shows that 25.01 per cent of the packages offered at the auction this week remained unsold.
The total volume traded for this week was 477,823 kilogrammes less than that realised during the previous week.
“Demand is low because people know the rains are coming and look up to better quality leaf when the weather improves,” Mr Peter Kimanga, director at Global Tea & Commodities (K) Ltd told the Nation.
“Ramadhan is also coming up and this impacts consumption as well,” he observed.
