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Tanzania Debuts Digital Tea Auction

By Dan Bolton

Tanzania conducted the inaugural Dar es Salaam digital tea auction this week, fulfilling a government mandate to stop exporting locally grown tea through the Kenyan port of Mombasa.

Four gardens sold a combined 1,320 packages (66,920 kgs), leaving 58% of tea unsold. Marks on offer include Arc Mountain, Chivanjee, Diddira, Kwamkoro, Kibena, Ikanga, and Itona.

Download Auction Report

The East Africa Tea Trade Association (EATTA), which runs the Mombasa tea auction, said the competing auction did not impact prices at its twice-weekly sales. The East African reported Mombasa could lose 25% of its current volume if Dar es Salaam meets its goal of selling 65,000 metric tons weekly. Mombasa is the world’s largest tea auction by volume and, in 1992, became the first tea auction outside London to sell teas from multiple origins. Sales of teas from ten countries are offered year-round. The auction handled as much as 545 million kilos before the pandemic, but volume fell to 482 million kilograms of tea in 2022.

Tea Board of Tanzania (TBT) Director General Mary Kipeja said the Dar es Salaam auction will lower costs, increase transparency, and make Tanzania a regional hub providing services to tea-growing countries in East Africa. Agriculture Ministry Permanent Secretary Gerald Mweli attended the auction, which drew the praise of President Samia Suluhu Hassan.

The auction and related infrastructure improvements are part of the national 10-Year Industry Strategy adopted by Parliament. The program calls for increasing tea production from 33,000 tons of made tea to 90,000 tons annually by fiscal 2029/30.

Players in the value chain will benefit, including buyers, brokers, warehouse operators, and transporters, and the port facilities at Tanga and Dar es Salaam, said Kipeja. “More Tanzanians will also be enticed with interests in tea cultivation and management, increasing production and quality of the produce,” she said.

Sales of Tanzanian tea for export currently generate an average of $60 million in foreign exchange revenue. Direct employment is 50,000 and rising.

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Episode 143 | Holiday Consumers Lose Confidence Before Black Friday Sales Begin | YouGov Survey of American Shoppers Finds 52% Won’t Shop on Black Friday | Tanzania Debuts Digital Tea Auction in Dar es Salaam | Tea Barter: Cash Short Egypt Offers Kenya a Blank Check | PLUS Tanzania is the third-largest tea producer in Africa. Smallholders there farm 48% of the country’s 23,800 hectares and collectively produce about 40% of the country’s green leaf. As Director General, Theophord C. Ndunguru is the voice of the Tanzania Smallholders Tea Development Agency. In October, I traveled to Dar es Salaam to talk with Theophord and fellow tea board members to better understand the state of tea smallholders. Today’s report is an excerpt from our discussion.

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