Good tea export news

Sudan’s lifting of its 20-month ban on Kenyan tea imports is the culmination of top-level negotiations and discreet engagements that have yielded sweet news for farmers and the government. It is a huge relief to exporters, who had been left holding millions worth of stock. This cash crop is a major source of livelihood for the growers, and foreign exchange for the country.

The breakthrough has restored access to a market worth $70 million, or Sh9.1 billion annually. Tea ranks high alongside coffee, tourism and diaspora remittances. Sudan happens to be Kenya’s second-largest tea market in Africa after Egypt.

Tea traders are hoping to recover lost sales as the disruption had weakened prices at the Mombasa Tea Auction and strained relations between Nairobi and Khartoum, prompting President William Ruto to intervene. Quite intriguing is the inside campaign that has reopened this vital tea market. The president has confirmed that a series of diplomatic engagements helped to break the impasse. The government pursued diplomatic intelligence-led negotiations, while business representatives used their informal contacts.

Sudan imposed the embargo in March last year following diplomatic friction over Kenya’s hosting of members of a Sudanese rebel group, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

Lifting the ban provides immediate relief across the tea supply chain. Over 3.44 million kilogrammes of tea valued at more than Sh1.34 billion, specially blended and branded for Sudanese buyers, had been held in Mombasa warehouses.

Renewed demand from Sudan is expected to restore activity at the auction, boosting earnings for smallholder farmers and increasing foreign exchange inflows.

It is in the interest of both countries to strengthen bilateral relations and expand trade for the region’s prosperity.

However, this is also a wake-up call for the tea sub-sector to explore and diversify markets instead of relying on just a few and getting stuck in case a dispute arises.

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