Shipping disruption tied to the Iran conflict has stranded about 8 million kilograms of Kenyan tea in Mombasa warehouses, costing the sector roughly $8 million a week since March 1.

George Omuga, managing director of the East African Tea Trade Association, which runs the Mombasa auction, said fighting between Iran, Israel and the United States has closed off normal shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, prompting major carriers to reroute vessels around the Cape of Good Hope. That route takes longer and costs more, driving up freight and insurance charges for exporters still able to ship.

The Middle East and Pakistan together take about 65% of the tea sold at the Mombasa auction, the region's benchmark market: the Middle East accounts for 20% to 25% of Kenya's tea exports, worth roughly 100 million kilograms a year, and Pakistan, which also borders Iran, buys about 40%. Tea bound for Pakistan and Egypt is still moving, Omuga said, but only by the longer Cape route.

Kenyan tea exports to Russia have separately fallen to about 5 million kilograms a year from 29 million kilograms before the war in Ukraine, tightening the list of large buyers still able to absorb Kenyan volumes at a time the Middle East route is blocked.

President William Ruto said 81% of the tea offered at auction was exported in March. Omuga said that figure reflected auction purchases made from January through March, not tea that had actually shipped, and that the reality on the ground did not match the government's more positive framing.

"The current conflict in the Middle East has had a direct impact, a negative impact on this auction," Omuga said.

Kenya is the world's largest exporter of black tea, and the crop is a leading foreign-exchange earner and income source for hundreds of thousands of smallholder farmers who supply the Mombasa auction through cooperative factories. A prolonged blockage of the Middle East and Pakistan routes would leave that volume with fewer buyers able to take it at comparable prices.

Sources: NPR, War in Iran strands tons of tea in Kenyan port; MyJoyOnline, Kenya tea exports hit by Iran conflict as stocks pile up; Heritage Times, Kenya: Eight Million Kilograms Of Tea Trapped As Iran War Hits Export.