December 07, 2006	Thursday	Ziqa'ad 15, 1427

NAIROBI, Dec 6: Prices of Kenyan tea were mixed at this week's auction with some grades favoured by the Pakistan and Afghanistan markets declining as buyers stayed on the sidelines, traders said on Wednesday.

“Afghanistan were out Tuesday and prices for their types (of tea) came down,” one trader based in Mombasa said.

Afghanistan is a major buyer of Pekoes Fannings Ones (PF1s).

Other brokers said the market saw strong interest but there was less pressure to purchase tea because buyers did not want to carry long positions as the end of the year approaches.

Heavy rains in key tea growing areas have also boosted production, they said.

Best PF1s changed hands at $1.92-$2.91 per kg from last week's $1.91-$2.41 per kg.

“There was good general demand for the 115,914 packages on offer at irregular rates,” a market report by the Africa Tea Brokers (ATB) said. Some 9,125 packages remained unsold.

A total of 114,600 packages were offered at last week's auction and 6,220 of them did not get buyers.

Brighter BP1s fetched prices between $2.29-$3.25 per kg compared to $2.11-$2.86 at the previous auction.—Reuters