Kenya top tea grade price rises for 5th week

Thursday, 13 December 2012 00:33 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

NAIROBI, Dec 12 (Reuters): The average price of Kenya’s top tea grade rose for a fifth straight week at auction to $4.42 per kg from $4.33 at the previous sale, brokers said.

The east African producer is the world’s leading exporter of black tea, which is also a leading hard currency earner, raking in $1.27 billion last year.

Africa Tea Brokers (ATB) said Best Broken Pekoe Ones fetched $4.02-$4.82 per kg, up from $4.00-$4.66 per kg attained at last week’s auction.

Best Pekoe Fanning Ones sold for $3.76-$4.00 per kg, compared with $3.77-$4.08 per kg, ATB said in a regular market report late on Tuesday.

Some 15% of the 129,079 packages or 8.27 million kg of tea offered at the auction went unsold, the broker added.

The main buyers during the auction were from Pakistan, Yemen, Sudan and Kazakhstan, ATB said.