IN SHORT: Kenya’s tea industry posted Sh218.79 billion ($1.69 billion) in total marketed value in 2025, recovering strongly from a difficult 2024 marked by oversupply and low prices. Export earnings reached Sh186.91 billion across 652.8 million kilograms shipped to 100 countries, with Pakistan and Egypt as key growth markets and emerging demand from Oman, Ireland, Japan, and Kazakhstan. The government is targeting smallholder farmer earnings of Sh100 per kilogram by 2027, up from Sh59 in 2022.
Kenya’s tea industry earned Sh218.79 billion ($1.69 billion) in total marketed value in 2025, driven by export growth to 100 countries and structural reforms targeting quality, value addition, and market diversification, as Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe declared the sector back on a growth path at the release of the 2025 Tea Industry Performance Report at Rukuriri Tea Factory in Embu. Export volumes reached 652.8 million kilograms generating Sh186.91 billion in export earnings, while domestic sales contributed Sh19.13 billion.
- Kenya expanded its export market footprint to 100 countries in 2025, up from 96 in 2024, with growth recorded in core markets Pakistan and Egypt alongside new destinations including Oman, Ireland, Japan, and Kazakhstan.
- The 2025 recovery follows a difficult 2024 marked by oversupply and depressed prices, prompting a strategic shift from volume-focused exports toward quality, value addition, and market diversification.
- A 0.8% export levy has been introduced to fund marketing, research, and infrastructure development for the sector.
- A 100% levy on imported tea has been introduced to protect local producers from low-quality imports.
- The Tea Board of Kenya plans to launch a business-to-business e-commerce platform linking producers directly with global buyers, cutting out intermediary steps in the value chain.
- Smallholder farmer earnings target: Sh100 per kilogram by 2027, up from Sh59 in 2022, benefiting more than 834,000 farmers who depend on the tea sector for their livelihoods.
- New government regulations address traceability, accountability, and compliance while targeting middlemen exploitation that has historically suppressed farmgate prices.
Kenya is the world’s largest exporter of black CTC tea and the sector is structurally important: 834,000 smallholder farmers produce approximately 60% of the country’s tea, with the remainder from large-scale estates. The shift from volume to value is the right strategic direction. Kenya competes primarily on volume in undifferentiated black tea, where prices are determined largely by Mombasa auction dynamics and Pakistani buyer power. Value addition, specialty teas, and direct market access via the planned e-commerce platform are the routes to a structurally higher price per kilogram.
The Bigger Picture: The Sh218.79 billion figure needs to be read against the target trajectory. At Sh59 per kilogram for smallholders in 2022, Kenya’s 834,000 tea farmers were earning poverty wages from a globally strategic crop. The Sh100 target by 2027 would represent a 69% increase in farmgate prices over five years, which is transformative if achieved. The key policy levers are the ones least visible in the headline numbers: traceability systems that allow Kenyan tea to command premium pricing in specialty markets, the e-commerce platform that bypasses the intermediary layers compressing farmgate margins, and the quality enforcement that prevents low-grade imports from undermining domestic price signals. The 100-country export footprint is impressive. The per-kilogram farmer return is the metric that actually matters.
Source: Capital FM Business
