Bujumbura, Oct 7 - Burundi's tea export earnings grew 62 percent in the first nine months of the year, boosted by low supply of the crop, a tea board official said on Monday.
The tiny central African nation earned $11.2 million from January to September 2008 from the sale of 4,959 tonnes of tea, compared with $6.9 million from 5,147 tonnes over the same period last year.
Joseph Ndahigeze, head of exports at the state-run Tea Board (OTB) said production fell in the first quarter of the year during a post-election crisis in nearby Kenya.
Landlocked Burundi exports 80 percent of its tea to Kenya where it is sold at a weekly auction held in the port city of Mombasa.
"Output dropped again between June and September due to drought ... Those are the main reasons for the good results in terms of earnings," Ndahigeze told Reuters.
Average prices in September rose to $2.60 per kg for top grades BP1, PF1, PD and D1, versus $2.56 per kg in August, according to OTB.
Ndahigeze said prices were also boosted by improved tea quality after the refurbishment of two major tea factories.
Burundi has upgraded a large part of its processing machinery which had been damaged during more than a decade of civil war.
Burundi expects export earnings to rise to $13.5 million in 2008, compared with $9.2 million in the previous year.
Tea is Burundi's second largest foreign hard currency earner after coffee and employs 300,000 smallholder farmers.
OTB projects output for 2008 to reach 8,250 tonnes, up from 7,073 tonnes produced in last year, mainly due to better rainfall and the distribution of fertilizers to farmers.