The 70 small-scale tea holder factories last week netted Sh772.7 million at the Mombasa tea auction, following the sale of 3,219,852kgs.
The payment reflected less compared to the previous week of Sh821.7 million after the auction of 3,496,847kgs.
Report from the Tea Brokers East Africa Limited (TEABL) in the auction that attracted 51 buyers, the trading facility handled 6.7 million kgs, Kenya presented 5.2kgs from KTDA and independent producers, Uganda 886,892kgs, Rwanda 508,497, and Burundi 83,360kgs.
In the previous week, the Mombasa Tea Auction offered 7.2 million kgs.
In the market, the best performers at the market were Mununga earned Sh19.4 million after the sale of 55,194kgs, Gathuthi, Sh13.7 million (41,748kgs), Imenti, Sh19.7 million (62,202kgs), Rukuriri Sh13.5 million (42,920kgs), and Kiegoi Sh15.8 million (50,628kgs).
Others are Ngere Sh21.1 million (86,592kgs), Kimunye Sh8.3 million (27,182kgs), Mungania Sh10.5 million (34,240kgs), Ndima Sh10.2 million (33,600kgs), Kathangariri Sh13 million (43,738kgs), among others.
“Michimikuru factory in Meru offered the highest consignment weighing 186,872Kgs that fetched Sh42.4 million, followed by Momul factory with 151,220kgs for Sh6.1 million,” read part of the report.
Others are Gacharage 34,435kgs fetched Sh12.2 million, Kanyenya ini that sold 67,588kgs (Sh16.9 million), Nduti 20,256kgs (Sh5.1 million), Kiru 34,963kgs (Sh9.1 million).
In the buyers category, Global Tea bought 16,200 packages, Mombasa Coffee 9,200 packages, James Finaly 8,380 packages, Mitchell Cotts 7,340 packages, among others.
KTDA Board member from Zone six, Enos Njeru, said Rukuriri, Mungani, and Kathangariri factories have remained among the top performers at the auction.
“All the factories are putting more effort into producing quality tea, but the returns over the months have remained low,” said Njeru.
Peter Karomo, a tea value chain expert, said the farmers are worried about the declining prices of the commodity at the market.