•This week’s price is also a slight drop from $2.44 (Sh 297.80 ) recorded at the auction last week.
•The ten cents difference came with a drop in volumes traded which was 465,080 kilos less than last week.
Tea prices at the weekly Mombasa auction eased this week to $2.34 (Sh285.60) a kilo after fetching an eight-month price a fortnight ago, when it sold at $2.46 (Sh 300.24).
This week’s price is also a slight drop from $2.44 (Sh 297.80 ) recorded at the auction last week.
The ten cents difference came with a drop in volumes traded which was 465,080 kilos less than last week.
“There was a fairly good general demand for the 211,155 packages (14,214,109.00 kilos) on offer. 131, 319 packages (8,772,186 Kilos) were sold with 37.8 percent of packages remaining unsold,” East African Tea Trade Association (EATTA) says in its weekly report.
Kazakhstan, other CIS states and Sudan lent improved but selective support with Pakistan Packers, Bazaar and Afghanistan maintaining useful activity but at lower levels.
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia and Tajikistan.
Egyptian Packers, UK, Yemen and other Middle Eastern countries reduced interest while Iran showed more inquiry, EATTA managing director Edward Mudibo said.
“Russia were less active while Local Packers were outbid. Somalia maintained activity at the lower end of the market,” Mudibo added.
The highest price remains the $2.62 (Sh319.77) recorded in February, which was a four-year high.
$2.16 (Sh263.63) is the lowest price so far this year which is way above last year’s average price of $1.61 (Sh196.50), meaning farmers are set for higher earnings this year as demand for the commodity in the export markets remains stable.
The average price for this year to date is $2.30 (Sh280.72).
This year, farmers are expected to earn more thanks to the strong dollar against the shilling, which has hit a historic low of 122 to the greenback.
The recent increase in the Fed rate, with another move expected in December, is expected to continue piling pressure on weak global currencies with the Kenyan shilling not spared.
The Federal Reserve raised its key interest rate by 0.75 percentage points, lifting it to its highest rate since early 2008.
This year, Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) affiliated farmers earned a record bonus for the year to June, with the agency paying a final bonus of Sh37.11 billion in July.
This was in addition to the monthly payments totaling Sh25.78 billion, which took the total payout for the financial year 2021/22 to Sh62.89 billion, the highest ever paid to farmers in a year.
It was an increase of Sh18.7 billion or 42.4 per cent from Sh44.15 billion paid last year.
The payment was Sh51.94 billion in 2020, Sh46.45 billion in 2019 and Sh62.36 in 2018.
This year’s high earnings came with increased average payment per kilo of green leaf which averaged Sh50.18 compared to Sh34.71 last year.