Regional tea exports rise

What you need to know:

Dorothy Nakaweesi explains how tea exports rose over the last year.

Good weather facilitated a tea bumper harvest as all Eastern African countries realised an increase in production.
The latest report from the Tea brokers East Africa Limited shows that at the Mombasa auction which ended on June 28, 9 million Kilogramme bags were offered, up from the 7.4 million bags recorded in the same period last year.
The report says: “Out of this production, the region exported a total of 8.3 million kilogrammes up from 6.2 million kilogrammes exported the same time last year thus indicating a 24.8 per cent.”
Out of the cumulative tea auctioned, Kenya the market leader, sold 6.5 million bags up from 4.8 million bags traded last year.

In this period, Uganda which is the second contributor to the Mombasa auction, also recorded an increase when it sold a total of 1 million bags, up from 743,000 bags sold the same period last year.
Tea is one of Uganda’s traditional export commodities, supporting more than 62,000 people and supporting more than 500,000 dependents.

Annually, Uganda earns about $100 million (Shs340 billion) in the export of tea. Europe, Kenya, the Middle East, Russia, and America are the major export destinations for Uganda’s tea.
However, experts say that the low quality of Ugandan tea has hindered its competition in both regional and international markets worldwide.
“When Uganda tea is exported to Kenya, it is mixed with other varieties and hence ceases to be Ugandan tea. It passes through the Kenyan auction market,” a report from Uganda Tea Association notes in part.