Sudan agrees to take Kenya tea

By SUNDAY NATION (Nairobi)

NAIROBI, Oct. 5, 2003 — The Sudanese government has finally accepted into its market thousands of tonnes of Kenyan tea which had been held at Port Sudan for more than two months.

Trade and Industry minister Mukhisa Kituyi announced yesterday that Sudan had allowed the 60,000 tonnes of tea from Kenya, into the country, after being held at the port since July 31.

The Sudanese government’s decision to put a ban on the Kenyan tea was caused by failure of tea exporters to comply with a packaging directive for tea sold into that country.

Sudan had directed the Kenyan exporters to package the tea sold there in one-kilogramme packages. They were given until July 31 to comply with the directive, Dr Kituyi explained.

However, the Kenyans did not respect the deadline and continued to sell in bigger packages. Consequently, any tea exported to Sudan after the deadline could not be allowed beyond the port. As a result, the exports caused a backlog of Kenyan tea of up to 60,000 tonnes by mid-week.

Addressing a press conference in his office on Friday before leaving for the US, Dr Kituyi announced that the ban was lifted on Thursday, allowing the tea into the country’s market. He thanked the Sudanese government for its responsiveness. The minister also said that the Government has now appealed to its Sudan counterpart to push the deadline to February next year. It is yet to get a response to the new appeal, Dr Kituyi said.

The minister expressed disappointment with Kenyan tea packers for failing to respect the July 31 deadline.

“I want to urge them to comply because this is an easy issue to comply with. They should take the opportunity also to create secondary employment for packaging in the smaller packets required,” he said.