East African Showcase

KENYA

The 3rd African Tea Convention, which took place in Nairobi in mid May, highlighted the importance of East African teas in the global tea market. Kenya currently ranks as the top tea producer in Africa and third in the world, after China and India, with an output of 400,000 metric tons (m.t.) in 2015.

In operation since 1957, the East African Tea Trade Association (EATTA) tea auction in Mombasa remains the largest in the world, with almost 360,000 m.t. of tea sold in 2015, followed by Colombo, Sri Lanka, with a sales volume of 317,000 m.t. in 2015. The members of EATTA are Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda.

The African tea market is strongly upgrading its profile, with consumption increasing steadily in the northern part of the continent, and the increasing production of orthodox teas, whilst CTC output continues to represent the biggest share of world tea exports. The Nairobi convention chose the motto “Sustainable tea farming - an inspiring future for nature, health, and rewarding livelihoods”, focusing on the tea industry’s serious concerns about ever-rising production costs, the need to ensure appropriate earnings for smallholder farmers, and the threats of climate change.

The convention also offered a useful platform for discussions on continuing shifts in the tea market during recent years, with China supplying 43% of the global tea production today, the switch amongst traditional tea consumers in the UK and Russia to coffee, the reduction in export availability due to rising domestic consumption in producing countries, and the introduction of new trade routes and skills by new operators.

The convention’s adjacent tea expo highlighted the quality of African teas and showcased the growing number of crafted specialty teas from Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, and Tanzania.