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| Sunday, 5 February 2006 |
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Kenya's drought could boost tea prices by Elmo Leonard The prolonged drought in Kenya is expected to boost Colombo auction tea prices in the coming months. The market for Kenyan small leaf teas is linked to small leaf high-grown Ceylon teas which are not of the best quality. Drought, for the East Africa nation has been an occasional feature in past decades whenever, high-grown small leaf Ceylon's has been the gainer, Anil Cooke of Asia Siyaka said. Otherwise, these teas compete with Indonesian and average quality Indian teas. In November last, Kenya's crop dropped to 30 million kilograms, as against 32 million kilos in November '04. In December '05, Kenya's yield dipped further to 29.8 million kilos, compared with 34.6 million kilos in December '04. Kenya's January '05 crop was a record 34 million kilos, as against 31 million kilos in January 2004. In 2005, Kenya's exports for the second successive year, overtook that of Sri Lanka's with 349.7 million kilos, up from 333.8 million kilos in 2004. In '05, Sri Lanka established a record for its exports reaching 308.8 million kilos, beating its previous high shipments of 303.3 million kilos in '04. However, the Mombasa auction centre is now an international focus for tea auctions, where teas from other small-time African origins, such as Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi also go under the hammer, Cooke said. Kenya's tea production for '05 was 328.5 million kilos, up from '04's yield of 324.6 million kilos, according to Asia Siyaka statistics. Sri Lanka's western plantations, or Dimbulla/ Dikoya quality tea season has commenced. The nights on the western slopes are experiencing cold weather conditions, and frost has been reported during the past two weeks, overflowing into the central Nuwara Eliya plantations. These conditions, coupled with bright crispy mornings are ideal for the manufacture of quality seasonal teas and such teas are expected to enter the Colombo auctions in the coming weeks, Cooke said. During Sri Lanka's two quality tea seasons, the Western, from January to March and the Eastern, or Uva/Udapussalawa tea season, from August to October, Ceylon teas sell at a substantially higher price than world market commodity based rates. But, during the high cropping months from April to July, when there is
heavy rainfall over the central hills, quality is relatively lower and
volumes, significantly higher, while prices dip. At these times, Ceylon teas
competes for price with other tea supplier countries, Cooke said. |
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