Enough Tea to Brew 7.5 Billion Cups Is Piled Up in East Africa
- Kenya aims to clear 15 million kilograms of tea in six months
- Growers are fetching low prices as buyers enjoy a bargain
A woman picks tea leaves at a tea plantation in Muranga, Kenya.
Photographer: Luis Tato/AFP/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
Three years ago, Kenya — one of the world’s biggest tea producers — set a minimum price for the commodity to cushion farmers from losses in an oversupplied market. Now, it’s been forced to suspend the plan and set about clearing a huge inventory at bargain rates instead.
Supply began piling up after Kenya set a reserve price of $2.43 a kilogram in 2021 and buyers began snubbing lower-quality teas that had been artificially inflated by the mechanism. The base price applied to all the tea grown by small-scale farmers contracted by Kenya Tea Development Agency, that produces some 60% of the nation’s leaf.