Kenya's auction urged to automate for greater transparency
Kenyan president called on the Mombasa auction, the biggest of its kind in the world, to adopt electronic trading in order to increase transparency and dispel perceptions of a "house of collusion". Automation is expected to aid transparency and incentivize farmers following increasing suspicions about deals brokered behind the scenes and at a time when farmers may be susceptible to start growing other crops or sell their land to property developers. The Mombasa auction handled 358.6 million kilograms of tea in 2015, which represents about 70% of tea exported from Kenya. Transactions of tea leaves from the neighboring countries also take place in Mombasa, whose main competitor remains the Colombo auction in Sri Lanka.