January 19, 2006	Thursday	Zilhaj 18, 1426

NAIROBI, Jan 18: Prices of Kenyan tea were mostly higher at this week’s auction as buyers stocked up on the commodity fearing a fall in volume due to drought conditions in the country, traders said on Wednesday.

The Africa Tea Brokers (ATB) has said the crop levels are on a decline.

The ATB offered 96,524 packages of tea down from last week’s 102,229. A total 5,040 packages were left unsold compared with 3,489 at the last sale.

Prices were improved for the second week in a row. It is very encouraging, one broker said.

Brighter Best Pekoe Ones (BP1s) sold at $1.94-$3.01 per kg compared with $1.90-$2.57 per kg at the previous sale.

Brighter Best Pekoe Fannings Ones (PF1s) fetched $1.85-$2.91 per kg from last week’s $1.83-$2.03 per kg.

The ATB said Pakistan Packers and Afghanistan lent good support to the Mombasa-based auction with better demand coming from Sudan, the UK and Yemen and other Middle East countries.

Kenya is one of the world’s top three producers of black tea together with India and Sri Lanka. —Reuters