A tea farmer shows the freshly picked purple tea leaves at a purple tea plantation in Muranga County, Kenya, on May 6, 2024. (Xinhua/Han Xu)
Kenya’s tea export earnings surged by 18 percent in the first half of 2024, driven by increased shipments to key markets, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) said on Wednesday.
NAIROBI, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) — Kenya’s tea export earnings surged 18 percent in the first half of 2024, driven by increased shipments to key markets, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) said Wednesday.
In its economic report, the KNBS said earnings jumped to 102.4 billion shillings (about 795 million U.S. dollars) for the period ending in June, with the country exporting 320,563 metric tons of tea. This marked a significant increase from the 674.9 million dollars earned from 270,287 metric tons during the same period in 2023.
March recorded the highest shipments, with 59,599 metric tons exported, while June saw the lowest, with 42,894 metric tons. Kenya averaged 132 million dollars in earnings per month during the period, the KNBS noted.
The Kenya Tea Board, in a recent report, attributed the rise in shipments to a recovery in key markets following the global economic slowdown caused by the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
Kenya’s primary tea markets include Pakistan, Egypt, Britain, Russia and Saudi Arabia, with emerging markets such as Chad, South Sudan, Kyrgyzstan, the Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Morocco, Angola and Tajikistan also contributing to growth.
The country is further diversifying its market by expanding into China, where it recently opened a trade center to facilitate the distribution of Kenyan tea.
Tea remains one of Kenya’s top foreign exchange earners, alongside tourism and horticulture. In 2023, the East African country earned 1.4 billion dollars from tea exports.