NAIROBI, Kenya – Kenya will on Wednesday, September 24, mark a historic milestone in its tea industry with the official launch of the country’s first auction dedicated to orthodox teas at the Mombasa Tea Auction.
Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe is expected to preside over the event, which introduces specialty teas into a market long dominated by black cut, tear and curl (CTC) teas.
The Tea Board of Kenya (TBK) says the country has now achieved sufficient production volumes to sustain regular trading of orthodox teas, which include black, green, oolong and white varieties processed through traditional full-leaf methods.
“Producers were required to catalogue their teas by August 28, and 34 factories have so far been licensed to handle pure orthodox teas,” TBK chief executive Willy Mutai said. Among them are Matunwa in Nyamira, Siomo and Ndarwetta in Bomet, and Choimim in Nandi.
Several other factories — including Githuki, Imenti, Tumaita, Kimunye, Besonik and Chelal — have installed new lines for orthodox processing alongside their conventional CTC operations.
The East Africa Tea Traders Association (EATTA), which runs the Mombasa auction, has created a dedicated trading line for orthodox teas and introduced an African orthodox tea grading system that has already been showcased internationally.
Orthodox teas are expected to fetch significantly higher prices, with projections of up to Sh1,200 per kilo — nearly five times the current average of Sh250 for CTC teas.
The government is banking on this shift to lift value-added tea exports from the current 5 per cent to at least 50 per cent.
The auction will be conducted electronically through the Integrated Tea Trading System (ITTS), reflecting Kenya’s push to modernise its agricultural markets.
The Mombasa Tea Auction, the world’s second-largest black tea auction after Colombo in Sri Lanka, trades teas not only from Kenya but also from Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, the DR Congo, Malawi, Madagascar and Mozambique.
Auctions are held weekly, with brokers selling teas on behalf of producers to international buyers through a transparent electronic bidding process.
Kenya is the world’s leading exporter of black tea, but the new orthodox tea line is expected to diversify its product offering, improve earnings for farmers, and strengthen its position in the global tea market.
