In September 2025, the regional auction in Mombasa traded its maiden batch of specialty orthodox tea as part of a strategy aimed at curbing plummeting fortunes. The auction had recorded a pile up of unsold stocks of black tea over two years, with farmers ‘earnings taking a hit.
George Omuga, the Managing Director of the East African Tea Trade Association (EATTA), which runs the auction, spoke to the Business Daily about the headwinds facing tea farmers and traders and the plans to improve the industry’s performance.
You recently launched sale of orthodox tea at the Mombasa auction. What has been the response so far?
The launch of the orthodox tea auction was a major milestone for the African tea sector that had over-relied on production and sale of black CTC (crush-tear-curl) teas over the years.
The response has been positive both locally and internationally with several international tea buyers who had been buying black orthodox tea from Sri Lanka, India and China now shifting focus to the African orthodox tea as an alternative source of quality pesticide and herbicide free teas.
The volumes offered in the auction have grown from the first orthodox tea auction in sale 38 of 2025 of 108,812 kilogrammes (kg) to a high of 33,933 kilogrammes in sale 42/2025 with average auction offers of above 200,000 kilogrammes.
The orthodox tea prices have remained relatively firm above $3 (Sh386.96) per kilogrammes with the absorption rate above 50 percent.
What is the main difference between specialty tea and traditional black tea?
Specialty teas are manufactured through a special process with a lot of care and artistic skills, with high-quality and high-value markets as the target.
Artisanal teas are market-driven and made in small quantities, carefully crafted to preserve quality consistency, aroma, flavour, and the make of the teas. Traditional black tea is made through mass processing for mass market.
Examples of specialty teas processed in Kenya include white, silvertip, golden tip teas, purple teas, green tea, oolong, and are processed for consumers who appreciate high-quality teas and are willing to pay premium prices.
What is your projection in terms of sales and pricing trends from orthodox tea in the medium-term?
We expect the production and sales volumes to gradually grow since the average prices for the orthodox teas at the auction are still better than black CTC prices.
Production volumes will settle at an equilibrium where optimum returns will be realised by the producers through better price discovery.
The orthodox tea price trends will follow quality, leaf make, and twist, and remain relatively firm in the medium term, with a possibility of the auction establishing an equilibrium supply and demand for orthodox teas, thereby resulting in predictable prices in the auction by addressing the mismatch between supply and demand.
What is your long-term strategy with specialty teas?
My long-term strategy with specialty tea is to build the capacity of our producer members through training to produce world class specialty teas and develop an online trading platform where the specialty tea producers in Africa can catalogue, showcase and sell the various specialty tea categories produced within the 10 EATTA member countries including Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Burundi, DRC, Mozambique, Madagascar, Malawi and Ethiopia.
We plan to allocate more resources towards marketing of specialty teas to create awareness in the world on the availability of the best quality specialty teas in Kenya and Africa. The market-driven production of specialty teas will be more sustainable and improve farmers’ earnings from products and market diversification.
What has been the biggest challenge with the traditional black tea at the auction?
The biggest challenge for the traditional black CTC teas sold at the auction has been inconsistency in the quality offered for sale (poor quality teas), over production that has created a big mismatch between supply and demand, lack of established equilibrium production volumes that the auction can sell with optimum price discovery, changing tastes and preferences and diminishing traditional markets for the black CTC teas.
Are there specific markets you are targeting with your new drive for orthodox tea?
We have conducted a comprehensive orthodox market research and intelligence, segmented specific markets for orthodox teas, with a plan to undertake an aggressive marketing campaign.
Targeted markets include, but are not limited to Russia, Iraq, UAE, Turkey, Libya, Morocco, Iran, and other Middle East countries. The association, in partnership with the government, is focusing more on creating new markets, growing the emerging markets, and maintaining the existing markets for the orthodox teas.
Is the shift to orthodox tea likely to upset trade in conventional black tea?
The gradual shift to orthodox will help create an equilibrium in black CTC production, stabilise demand, and improve prices for black CTC. Basically, it will address the current mismatch between supply and demand, hence a strategy to improve farmers' income through product and market diversification.
There is no intention to shift completely to orthodox tea production, but the focus is on growing the orthodox production and other specialty tea production portfolio to stop over-reliance on black CTC production.
The auction witnessed a prolonged glut in black tea until recently; has that changed?
The prolonged glut experienced due to introduction of reserve prices by the Kenyan government has been corrected since the removal of reserve prices in October 2024. The high quantities of the old stocks experienced in 2024 and part of 2025 have been moved through auction and direct sales, and currently there is no glut.
The volumes offered weekly in the auction are currently at an average of 13 million kilogrammes as opposed to an average of over 18 million kilogrammes previously offered weekly during the glut. The auction absorption has stabilised to an average of 85-90 percent weekly as compared to 47-50 percent during the glut period.
In 2025, Kenyan tea production declined by over 40 million kilogrammes due to an aggressive quality drive in partnership with the Tea Board of Kenya and the unpredictable rainfall patterns experienced in the country that affected production, thereby correcting the mismatch between production and demand. We project that the tea prices at the Mombasa tea auction in 2026 will remain firm and better than the last three years.
2024 was shaky in terms of earnings for growers. What was the key drawback, and what are your projections for 2025?
The key drawback in 2024 was the implementation of reserve tea prices by the Government in 2021 without periodic review, which resulted in the huge stocks of old teas and massive losses to the smallholder farmers.
Tea loses value with time, and this negatively impacts the growers’ earnings. The implementation of reserve prices not commensurate with the quality of tea offered in the auction was therefore counterproductive, as the farmer was hurt more, contrary to the government's intention of helping the farmer, in total disregard of the global market dynamics.
How far are your plans to fully automate the operations of the auction?
The Mombasa tea auction transitioned from the hammer/outcry auction in 2020 to an automated/digital trading platform. The auction automation has been enhanced further through the introduction of the Multihall auction platform, which has tremendously improved the auction efficiency in terms of traded volumes and price discovery.
We intend to leverage the vibrancy of the digital smart auction platform to reduce the number of black CTC auction days from two days to a single day, introduce additional halls as the orthodox tea volumes increase, and introduce the specialty tea auctions within the same trading platform.
