Bujumbura, Oct 22 - Burundi tea export earnings rose 11 percent to $12.4 million in the first nine months of 2009 compared with the same period in 2008, boosted by a drop in output regionally, a tea board official said on Thursday.
The country's state-run tea board (OTB) exported 5,216 tonnes over Jan-Sept 2009 from 4,962 tonnes worth $11.2 million during the same period last year.
"Prices were particularly better between June and September following a severe drought in east Africa which has reduced output," said OTB's Remy Ndayininahaze. "We noted a high demand from buyers during that period and this has boosted earnings."
Ndayininahaze said the average export price was $2.84 per kg in September from $2.58 in the same month in 2008.
Landlocked Burundi exports 80 percent of its tea through a weekly auction in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa.
OTB expects overall earnings to reach $15 million this year, versus $13.7 million in 2008. It forecasts 2009 output at 7,500 tonnes, up from 7,000 tonnes in the previous year mainly due to good rains and increased use of fertilizers on tea farms.
Tea is Burundi's second hard currency earner after coffee and employs some 300,000 smallholder farmers in the small central African nation of 8 million people.