The Mountain Journal
On the spot are the private tea factories blamed on buying low quality green leaf from farmers and middlemen, with the Tea Board of Kenya (TBK) directed to revoke their licenses of the culprits.
The controversy surrounding the quality of green leaf was a debate at the centre during the tea directors induction course in Mombasa last week.
The problem of low quality green leaf has been traced to the Agriculture Food Authority (AFA), before the establishment of the TBK, having issued several tea factories licenses to undeserving plants, without genuine green leaf supply to sustain operations.
The Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua addressing tea directors weighed in the debate and directed the TBK to pursue the culprits behind the low-quality green leaf.
Gachagua said the culprits once apprehended their licenses will be revoked followed by other legal action.
“As the regulator moves to deal with the low quality menace, police should back them, as the government will not condone sabotage on the tea growers investment,” said Gachagua.
He asked the KTDA leadership to focus on lowering the cost of production, and end wastage in the tea farmers venture.
“All concentrations should be tailored at the growers interests, thus the need for all in the tea value chain to close the loss making subsidiaries,” said the DP.
The DP was accompanied by Agriculture and Livestock Cabinet Secretary Dr Andrew Karanja, Agriculture PS Paul Rono, and KTDA Holding Chairman Enos Njeru.
This year complaints of unsold teas in the warehouses emerged with multinationals listed as buying the low quality green leaf hawked by growers.
Njeru said through the government interventions, 60 million kilogrammes of tea piling up in the warehouses have been cleared and the remaining 40 million kilogrammes set to be cleared at the end of the month.
“ In my term at KTDA I am seeking to enhance quality designed to bridge the gap between the farmers earning from the industry reduced in the bonus payment,” said Njeru.
Njeru challenges the directors in the industry to be innovative in finding new routes to take our teas to the market, with more importantly pursuing green leaf quality.
Dr Karanja said the government targets tea sales to increase from the current Sh180 billion to Sh360 billion by the year 2027.
“ In the same period, tea volumes increased from 20 million kilogrammes to 235 million kilogrammes, while the price of the commodity rose from Sh59 to Sh90,” said the Agriculture CS.
TBK Chairman Kamau Kahiu said the regulator will move to deal with those breaking the tea regulations.
The enforcement team, he said, will move around tea growing regions looking for the troubleshooters messing the sector,” said Kamau.
