NAIROBI, Kenya
A severe frost nipped Kenya’s tea harvest in the bud this month, idling thousands of tea workers and destroying as much as a quarter of the typical January harvest.
The inclement weather is the latest of nature’s challenges for growers in the Rift Valley, one of the world’s most productive tea producing regions. Officials of the Kenya Plantation and Agricultural Workers Union (KPAWU) tallied frost damage over thousands of hectares.
Estimate place damage at 20 million kilos which is almost a fourth of the 85 million kilos typical of January. Warmer weather has since returned but plants will take some time to sprout new buds. The greatest harm occurs when hot days are followed by frostbite.
The Tea Board of Kenya could also not immediately give a figure for the loss in output countrywide but at least one billion shillings ($11.4 million), was lost according to The Victoria Times Colonist. The country is estimated to earn 106 billion shillings ($1.2 billion) from tea exports in 2011.
Top grade black tea is earning about $3 per kg at the Mombasa auction.
Source: The Victoria Times Colonist