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Kenya’s tea sector has experienced strong growth in recent years, thanks to increased production, stable prices and rising demand.
Tea is one of Kenya’s main exports and a significant driver of the country’s economy, supporting some 5m direct and indirect jobs across the value chain. According to data from the Tea Board of Kenya (TBK), production volumes rose by 24% from 458.85m kg in 2019 to 570.26m kg in 2023.
This makes Kenya the world’s third largest tea producer after India and China. Meanwhile, export earnings from tea hit a record Sh215.21bn ($1.7bn) in 2024, up from Sh180.5bn ($1.4bn) in 2023. This was partly driven by access to new export destinations, with Kenyan tea shipments reaching 96 countries in 2024, up from 92 in the previous year.
Pakistan is the top export destination for Kenyan tea, importing 206.27m kg in 2024 and accounting for 34.7% of the country’s total tea export volumes. Other major buyers include Egypt (86.90m kg), the UK (57.44m kg), UAE (30.50m kg), Russia (28.46m kg), India (17.13m kg), Saudi Arabia (15.92m kg), Yemen (14.13m kg), Iran (13m kg) and China (12.42m kg). Collectively, these ten countries – most of them long-established markets for Kenyan tea – accounted for 81% of total tea export volume in 2024.
Despite the positive momentum of recent years, a drop in production was recorded in the first quarter of 2025. In January, output decreased to 54.36m kg, down from 58.95m kg a year earlier. February’s production dropped to 44.61m kg, compared to 55.44m kg the previous year, while March figures fell sharply to 37.93m kg from 54.34m kg in the same month of 2024.
TBK attributed this slowdown to poor rainfall and global trade disruptions “Tea performance remains under pressure from weather and global shocks. Kenya produced 51.78m kg of tea in April, 3.85% less than April 2024, mainly due to low rainfall… Disruptions from the Russia-Ukraine war, Red Sea attacks and Sudan conflict affected global buying,” TBK stated in its industry performance report for April.
Supporting smallholders
The Kenyan tea industry is underpinned by two primary production systems: smallholder farmers and large-scale estates. While major multinationals such as Unilever Tea Kenya, James Finlay and Eastern Produce Kenya engage in large-scale tea cultivation and processing – collectively accounting for approximately 40% of the country’s total tea output – it is the smallholder farmers who are the lifeblood of the sector.
Smallholders, who typically cultivate tea on plots measuring less than half an acre, produce 60% of the country’s tea. They are organised into cooperatives under the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA), which manages tea factories and provides essential support services to tea farmers.
KTDA collects green tea leaves from over 600,000 smallholders, processing the leaves at 70 factories spread out across Kenya’s tea-growing regions. Utilising the crush, tear, curl (CTC) method, KTDA’s factories produce black tea that is well-suited for global blends. KTDA markets its tea through the Mombasa Tea Auction, direct sales and factory-door sales. KTDA also engages in policy advocacy, helping draw attention to the opportunities and challenges facing the industry. Chief among the issues that KTDA has been engaged on lately is climate change.
Chege Kirundi, chairman of KTDA, contends that smallholders need increased support to bolster their resilience against climate change, which he argues poses a significant threat to tea production yields.
“We are investing in drought-resistant tea varieties and efficient irrigation systems to help farmers adapt,” he said at a function at Gacharage Tea factory in Murang’a town in May to mark International Tea Day.
Speaking at the same event, Ndung’u Gathenji, TBK chairman, echoed KTDA’s sentiments on the need to strengthen smallholders’ capacity to confront climate change. “Kenya’s tea sector has long been a global leader, renowned for quality, volume and consistency… but as we celebrate our achievements, we must also confront the realities of climate change,” he noted.
According to KTDA’s Climate Risk Mapping study, climate change could reduce tea yields by up to 20% in the coming decades if efforts to boost farmers’ resilience are not amplified.
