Tea sold through the Kenyan auction increased by 24.76 percent this year to 348.15 million kgs, Africa Tea Brokers said on Thursday.

Kenya, which is the leading exporter of black tea in the world accounted for the bulk of the tea, exporting 259 million kgs.

The rest came from eight regional producers including Tanzania, Uganda and Burundi, which sell their produce through the auction in the port city of Mombasa.

Good rains for most of this year drove production up, with Tea Board of Kenya projecting an increment of around 15 percent for the full year.

Earnings from the crop for Kenya, which was the second-largest source of hard currency last year after horticulture, rose 51 percent in the first eight months of this year.

Agencies