Kenya’s tea export sector is facing mounting pressure as geopolitical tensions linked to the Iran conflict disrupt global shipping routes, leaving millions of kilograms of tea stranded at the port of Mombasa. The delays are beginning to ripple across the value chain, raising concerns about export earnings, market stability, and farmer livelihoods. According to the ...

On a misty morning in Kericho, Kenya’s famed tea capital, workers bend low over endless rows of green bushes. “We harvest for the world,” says 36-year-old picker Alice Chepng’etich, her hands moving swiftly. “But many of us go home without enough maize flour for ugali.” This paradox defines African agriculture: vast exports of tea, coffee, ...

Kenya’s tea industry has recorded its first decline in export earnings in seven years, a sharp reminder of how global demand shifts and currency movements can quickly ripple through rural economies. For the year ended June 2025, export receipts fell by 13.4 percent to KSh 176.76 billion, down from KSh 204.14 billion the previous year. ...

Nandi, 27th June 2025… Eastern Produce Kenya (EPK)  has today hosted over 1,000 farmers to demonstrate comprehensive tea husbandry, climate change mitigation and adaptation measures, and the use of modern technology during its 13th Farmers Field Day held at  Kipsitoi Tea Primary School in Sitoi Estate. Themed “Cultivating quality tea through sustainable community partnerships”, the event brought together smallholder farmers from ...

A tea farmer shows the freshly picked purple tea leaves at a purple tea plantation in Muranga County, Kenya, on May 6, 2024. (Xinhua/Han Xu) Kenya’s tea export earnings surged by 18 percent in the first half of 2024, driven by increased shipments to key markets, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) said on ...