The weekly tea auction in Mombasa, Kenya, is one of the largest black tea auctions in the world, where etiquette and old-world manners still reign. Planned modernization, however, promises to turn tradition on its head.Every Monday and Tuesday, around 80 brokers and buyers gather together in an elegant colonial building in Mombasa to haggle, every so graciously, over the price of tea http://www.best-reviewer.com/best-review-top-5-influential-persons-aviation-history.htm. This is the Mombasa Tea Auction, a genteel old institution dating back to colonial times. The tea auction may look old-fashioned, but each year it manages to move around 345 million kilos of black tea from nine countries. This makes it the largest black tea auction center in the world, according to Peter Kimanga, chairman of the East African Tea Trade Association.The rules of etiquette are strict - neckties for the brokers, even in the stifling Mombasa heat, and smart collared shirts for the buyers. In the auction room, men address one another as “sir,” and despite the absence of microphones, you rarely hear anyone raise their voice. Geoffrey Rimbere, manager of the auction house, explains why.“Every year we have workshop on etiquette and decorum in the auction room. You can’t use language which is not acceptable there, or behave in a manner which is abnormal. That’s the culture up here. You cannot use unfriendly language. Even if you don’t get the kitty, you still have manners,” said Rimbere.
Kenya’s tea industry dates back to 1903, and 62 percent of the tea is grown by small-scale farmers. The auction still has a decidedly old-world feel to it. But well-mannered as it is, the tea moves fast, selling at around five lots a minute, and the buyers watch one another like hawks. But all of this is about to change, as the Mombasa Tea Auction prepares to go online by 2013. The old open ou
