Kenya drought threatens output target in world's biggest tea exporter

Nairobi

TEA production in Kenya, the world's biggest exporter of the black variety of the leaves, may miss the government's targeted 25 per cent increase this year as an extended dry spell damages the crop. Coffee output will also be hurt.

The La Nina weather phenomenon, which causes dryness in eastern Africa, is replacing the rain-inducing El Nino effect that resulted in heavy rainfall from October to December and helped boost tea output in the Central and Rift Valley growing regions by more than a third in the first eight months of 2016 from a year earlier.