{{Burundi’s tea export earnings fell 8 percent in the first quarter of 2014 from a year ago, due partly to a higher production from neighbouring Kenya, the biggest regional producer of black tea, the country’s tea board said on Friday.}}
State-run tea board (OTB) said it has collected $5.40 million between January and March from the export of 2,306,702 kg, down from $5.88 million earned the same period in 2013 from the sale of 1,984,806 kg.
“Prices of Burundi’s tea fell, affected by a stronger Kenya output and this also impacted negatively earnings,” said OTB’s export official, Joseph Marc Ndahigeze.
Kenya – the world’s leading exporter of black tea -influences the regional market as the biggest East African economy alone produces 80 percent of the commodity in the region, Ndahigeze told Reuters.
The landlocked nation exports 80 percent of its commodity through a regional weekly auction held in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa.
The average export price per kg for Burundi’s tea dipped $2.34 from $2.97, the tea board report showed.
Tea is the second biggest hard currency earner after coffee and employs some 300,000 smallholder growers in a nation of nearly 10 million people.
Revenue from the commodity dropped to $20.8 million in 2013 from $26.3 million in 2012, depending on a weaker world market.
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