Kenya will next month send its third tea trade mission to Iran in the last four years as it seeks to retain the Tehran market despite mounting challenges resulting from US sanctions.
The director general of Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA) Anthony Muriithi said the Kenyan delegation will head to Iran next month to solidify the Asian market amid sanctions that have nearly made trade between Kenya and Iran impossible.
The mission comes at a time when there are heightened tensions after the US killed an Iranian military commander in a missile strike in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, raising fears of war breaking out in the region.
Iran remains one of the Kenya’s key markets and it pays a premium price for local tea, a move that has seen the country conduct several trade missions in defence of the market.
“Iran remains one of our key markets and the demand for the beverage is still high in that country,” said Mr Muriithi.
In 2017, Kenya sent a delegation to Iran to promote the country’s beverage by seeking more buyers of the commodity. This was followed by another last November.
