Workers pick purple tea at Njeru Industries in Meru. FILE PHOTO | PHOEBE OKALL | NMG
Kenya plans to open up a specialty and
orthodox tea auction in Mombasa in a move expected to make the country
the pioneer purple tea sales host.
East African Tea
Traders Association (EATTA), which runs the globally renowned Mombasa
auction, says plans are at an advanced stage to roll out the trading in
purple, green and orthodox tea sales at the weekly auction.
The Tea Directorate said the auction would play a key role by creating clear structures for the marketing.
Currently,
only black CTC tea, which Kenya is renowned for, is sold through the
auction while some specialty varieties are sold directly to the export
market.
“We are doing a feasibility study at the moment
to establish if we can have consistent supply at the auction to
maintain the trading throughout,” said Edward Mudibo, managing director
at the EATTA.
Orthodox tea is made from leaves that are
processed by traditional methods of withering, rolling and oxidisation
while non-orthodox brands such as the popular black tea are manufactured
using machines that crush, tear and curl (CTC) the leaves.
Mr
Mudibo said the EATTA is in talks with tea buyers, producers and other
relevant stakeholders to see how best to execute the plan. The
feasibility study will take six months.
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