The Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA) under the Ministry of Agriculture on Wednesday, January 8, announced its plans to send a third tea trade mission to Iran as it seeks to retain the Tehran tea market despite mounting challenges resulting from US sanctions.
In a report published by the Daily Nation, AFA director-general Anthony Muriithi noted that the Kenyan delegation would head to Iran in an unspecified date in February 2020, to solidify the Asian market amid sanctions that continued to pose challenges for trade between Kenya and Iran.
“Iran remains one of our key markets and the demand for the beverage is still high in that country,” remarked Muriithi.
He further indicated that Iran remained one of the most valuable markets for Kenyan tea terming it as a market that gives premium prices for local tea, a move that has seen Kenya conduct several trade missions to secure the market.
The announcement by Kenya comes at a time that Iran is facing trade sanctions from the United States, an action that could bring down its buying potential.
Because of the sanctions imposed on the Middle East nation by the US, Kenyan tea destined to Tehran has had to pass through a third party country (either in Europe or Dubai).
According to the Agriculture and Food Authority, Kenya’s tea is sold to Iran at about Ksh400 per kilo, beating other teas sold in the country, mainly from India and Sri-Lanka.
AFA also indicated that the high quality of Kenyan tea compared to tea from other countries makes it highly sought after by the Iranians.
Considering the high population of over 80 million people in Iran, with a per capita tea consumption of 1.4 kilograms, Kenya has been on the run to secure the highly potential market.
Tehran imports over 100 million kilograms of tea from Kenya, with Kenya supplying over 20% of the total tea imported.
In 2017, Kenya sent a delegation to Iran to promote the country’s beverage by seeking more buyers of the commodity after a spat between the two countries over prices nearly put Kenya at the risk of losing a key market.
This was followed by another visit in November 2019.
In October 2019, the Kenya Tea Development Authority KTDA announced a decline by 25% for tea earnings to farmers resulting from interferences in the operations from various markets in the Middle East.
Trouble between the United States started escalated after the killing of Iran's General Qasem Soleimani who served as the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, the foreign arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
He was viewed by Iranians as both the orchestrator and the public face of Iran’s regional operations.
In a media briefing in Nairobi on Wednesday, January 8, the Iranian embassy cleared the air regarding alleged fears that the Islamic Republic of Iran would, in retaliation, strike allies of the US, Kenya included.
The Iranian Embassy Head of Politics Tohid Afzali stated that Kenya and Iran enjoyed a long-time friendship and were determined to preserve it.
"I want to send a message to all dear and admirable Kenyans, you are our friends, we wish all Kenyans long and prosperous lives," Afzali stated.
"We are here to improve our long lying relationship with Kenya, there is no relation between any Iran-US tension and Kenya," he reiterated.
