Kenya's tea export earnings rise 13% yr/yr in 2021 - regulator

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya's 2021 tea export earnings rose 13% to 136 billion shillings ($1.20 billion) compared with a year earlier, helped by rising export volumes, the industry's regulator said.

Kenya's total tea production for the year fell to 533 million kg from 569 million kg a year earlier, while total exports rose to 558 million kg from 518 million in 2020, Peris Mudida, acting chief executive officer of the Tea Board, said in a speech to tea industry executives, agriculture ministry officials late last week.

Reuters reviewed a copy of the speech on Tuesday.

Kenya is a leading exporter of black tea worldwide, and tea is a major earner of foreign exchange alongside remittances, horticulture and tourism.

Mudida said earnings from local tea consumption fell slightly to 19 billion shillings from 20 billion in 2020.

($1 = 113.4500 Kenyan shillings)

(Reporting by George Obulutsa, Editing by Robert Birsel)