A report by the Kenya National Bureau Statistics (KNBS) revealed that tea and coffee exports declined in the month of December, a development that could spell doom to Kenya's economy.
The latest Economic Indicators Report of December 2024 by KNBS noted that tea exports in December 2024 dropped to 49,700 metric tonnes from 53,300 metric tonnes in November.
This was further compounded by an overall drop in tea production in November. This has the potential knock-on effect of hampering Kenya's economic growth with tea exports accounting for roughly 23 per cent of the country's foreign exchange earnings. Annually, the country produces over 450 million Kilogrammes of tea, which earns the country over Ksh120 billion in export earnings and Ksh22 billion in local sales. On the other hand, coffee exports recorded the lowest yearly figures at 2,647 metric tonnes down from 4,121 metric tonnes in November.
Concurrently, there was a reduction of the coffee export value from Ksh2.9 billion in November to Ksh1.9 billion in December.
