Egypt wants to keep buying tea from Kenya — it just doesn’t want to use up its stash of US dollars, so the country is offering to barter instead.
With a number of countries around the world facing shortages of greenbacks, the world’s biggest exporter of black tea was asked last week if it could trade tea for anything that Egypt produces, according to Kenyan Treasury Secretary Njuguna Ndung’u. Speaking at a panel in Nairobi on Monday, the Kenyan official said the request came from Egypt’s ambassador.
“Right now we cannot get your tea. It’s lying in Mombasa because we have no dollars to pay,” Ndung’u reported the ambassador as saying, referring to the major Kenyan port city. “We’ll get your tea and you also come and decide what you get from us.”
Egypt’s foreign ministry didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kenya is experiencing its own dollar shortage that’s fanning inflation and weighs on the shilling. The East African nation faces elevated demands for the US currency to import food and fuel, as well as the payment of a $2 billion bond maturing in June 2024.
Currency Losses
The shilling has lost 18% against the dollar this year, with the Egyptian pound down 20% over the same period.
Egypt is Kenya’s second biggest buyer of tea, after Pakistan. Exports to the two markets in the first eight months of 2023 were down 23% and 13% respectively, according to Tea Board of Kenya data.
Read more: Pakistan, Egypt Tea Drinkers Reduce Demand for Kenyan Exports
President William Ruto dispatched his agriculture minister to negotiate a similar barter arrangement with Pakistan, Ndung’u said.
“We are still in a dollar global shortage and that is why countries like Egypt and Pakistan want to do barter trade,” he said.
With a number of countries around the world facing shortages of greenbacks, the world’s biggest exporter of black tea was asked last week if it could trade tea for anything that Egypt produces, according to Kenyan Treasury Secretary Njuguna Ndung’u. Speaking at a panel in Nairobi on Monday, the Kenyan official said the request came from Egypt’s ambassador.
“Right now we cannot get your tea. It’s lying in Mombasa because we have no dollars to pay,” Ndung’u reported the ambassador as saying, referring to the major Kenyan port city. “We’ll get your tea and you also come and decide what you get from us.”
Egypt’s foreign ministry didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kenya is experiencing its own dollar shortage that’s fanning inflation and weighs on the shilling. The East African nation faces elevated demands for the US currency to import food and fuel, as well as the payment of a $2 billion bond maturing in June 2024.
Currency Losses
The shilling has lost 18% against the dollar this year, with the Egyptian pound down 20% over the same period.
Egypt is Kenya’s second biggest buyer of tea, after Pakistan. Exports to the two markets in the first eight months of 2023 were down 23% and 13% respectively, according to Tea Board of Kenya data.
Read more: Pakistan, Egypt Tea Drinkers Reduce Demand for Kenyan Exports
President William Ruto dispatched his agriculture minister to negotiate a similar barter arrangement with Pakistan, Ndung’u said.
“We are still in a dollar global shortage and that is why countries like Egypt and Pakistan want to do barter trade,” he said.