Kenyan tea worth Ksh2.3 billion was withdrawn from the market in the latest sale as the Kenya Tea Development Agency instructed brokers to sell the beverage at the reserved price, resulting in traders rejecting millions of kilos of the commodity offered for sale.
During the sale, KTDA directed brokers to sell their tea at $2.43, the government-set minimum price for smallholder farmers' commodity. In the previous sale, the agency had instructed brokers to sell the beverage at the best-offered bids. Exceeding 70 million kilogrammes, the tea reserves within KTDA's warehouses and facilities have remained stagnant due to their uncompetitive pricing, stemming from the enforced minimum price at the auction.