Boost for farmers as state plans to revamp global tea marketing

Agriculture PS Paul Ronoh testing tea samples during the tea competition in Mombasa on September 4, 2024. [Kelvin Karani, Standard] 

The government has announced a raft of measures to boost tea prices and increase farmers earnings.

Instead of relying on the traditional auction in Mombasa, the state will now establish the Kenya Tea Trade Mission that will market tea to existing and new foreign markets.

Agriculture Principal Secretary Paul Ronoh said the team will market Kenyan tea around the world instead of depending on prices offered at the tea auction when the bell rings.

Ronoh noted that the Mombasa tea auction has been selling tea at low prices leading to poor returns to the farmers.

Addressing the Tea Board of Kenya (TBK) annual summit and centenary celebrations at the Sarova Whitesands beach resort in Mombasa, the PS said the government will implement a value-addition programme for smallholder farmers.

“As we reflect, we are focusing on how to enhance income for our farmers. We want to make tea profitable to the farmers through strategies,” he said.

On value addition, Ronoh announced that the government was prioritising establishment of common user facilities where tea from smallholder farmers will be packaged and branded to fetch higher prices in the international market.

“We want to sell our tea at the price of gold and enable our farmers get higher returns,” he said.

He said the government was working on strategies to popularise local consumption of tea, particularly, among the youths noting that less than 10 per cent of the product is for the domestic market.

“We are going to have products for young people to make them embrace tea. Tea is the second most consumed drink in the world after water and we want our tables to have tea and not something else,” he said.

The PS revealed that the government was keen on handling of tea from the farmer, factory and warehouse to maintain quality and expand the market.

“Tea must be handled well from farmers, factory and after the factory. It must remain of high quality upto the consumer,” he said.

TBK chief executive officer Willy Mutai said that the tea industry is expected to produce more than 600 million kilos this year compared to 570 million kilos produced last year due to availability of subsidized fertiliser among other factors.
Mutai noted that Mombasa has become an important centre for tea and 13 African countries export their produce through the coastal city.
TBK chairman Jacob Kahiu assured that they are keen to resolve differences with some stakeholders in the tea industry that had taken the board to court.

He said the tea sector has registered milestones since the beginning of commercial tea production in 1924.

Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) chief executive officer Wilson Muthaura asked farmers to adhere to the global practice of picking two leaves and a bud to maintain quality.

He said although farmers were yet to reap maximum returns from their produce, the situation has improved and recently they got Sh25 per kilo per month and Sh60 per kilo per year.

“We must also shift our tea consumption culture domestically to expand our market,” he said.

Deputy President Kithure Kindiki is expected to give a keynote address at the summit Friday.

The Ministry Agriculture and Livestock Development noted that the fertiliser subsidy programme has seen tea production for the half-year period of 2024 increase from 273.64 million kilograms to 321.09 million kilograms compared to the same period in 2023.

This reflected a growth of 47.44 million kilograms or 17 per cent.

Tea export earnings for the half-year period of 2024 increased by 23.77 per cent (Sh18.83 billion) to Sh98.07 billion from Sh79.23 billion recorded during the half-year period in 2023.

The government expects the export earnings to increase by Sh30.7 billion to Sh211.27 billion from Sh180.57 billion in 2023.

The ministry says it is keen to boost the value of agricultural exports through value addition and consequently contribute to higher returns to the tea growers to an average payment of Sh100 per kilogram of green leaf by the year 2027.

Last year, the tea industry recorded the highest export earnings of Sh180.57 billion.

This marked an increase from Sh138.09 billion recorded in 2022 and Sh136.59 billion in 2021.

The green leaf payments to the tea farmers increased to an average of Sh59.02 last year from Sh50.18 in 2022 and Sh34.71 in 2021.