Nairobi, April 16 - Kenya expects revenue from tea, its number two hard currency earner, to rise following a marketing deal with Iran, the government said on Wednesday.
Iran offered to sell Kenyan tea during bilateral talks that culminated in the visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to east Africa's biggest economy in February.
"They have offered us the opportunity to market Kenyan tea right in the middle of Tehran. The sector will definitely earn more," Cyrus Njiru, the top official at Kenya's trade ministry, told a news conference in Nairobi.
"As far as I'm concerned, it has already started," he said, without elaborating. He did say that the main benefit was being derived out of the sale of processed tea.
The weekly tea auction at Mombasa port where the bulk of Kenyan tea is sold -- as well as tea from neighbouring countries like Tanzania -- usually features unprocessed tea.
Tea earned east Africa's biggest economy 62 billion shillings ($775.4 million) last year. But the regulator Tea Board of Kenya expects it to bring in about 65 billion shillings this year as lower supplies due to drought push up prices. ($1=79.95 Kenyan Shilling)