NAIROBI, June 4: Kenyan tea prices rose at this week’s auction with particularly strong demand being led by Pakistan retailers, dealers said on Wednesday.

Mombasa-based African Tea Brokers (ATB) said in a weekly report 128,804 packages (8.3 million kg) were offered for sale on Tuesday and Wednesday, with 11,700 unsold.

At the previous week’s auction, 105,959 packages were offered and 12,900 were left unsold.

“The price went up because of very strong demand from Pakistan,” Peter Kimanga, chairman of the tea buyers association, told Reuters.

Traders said Afghanistan also lent very strong support.

Best BP1s sold at $3.28-$2.53 per kg compared with $3.00-$2.51 per kg at last week’s sale. Top PF1s went for $3.06-$2.74 compared with $3.00-$2.58 at the last auction.

A week ago, the Tea Board of Kenya said poor rains meant production in April 2008 fell by 10 per cent to 27.4 million kg compared with the same period last year.

Kenya, a leading global exporter of black tea, produced a record 369 million kg for the whole of last year. Its weekly auction also sells tea from Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Madagascar, Malawi, Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique.