Small-scale farmers welcome new tea reforms

Small-holder farmers have welcomed the implementation of new tea regulations.

For years, they have been pleading with the government to tame Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA).

Tealand Smallholder Tea Farmers Association Chairman Richard Cheruiyot said this will force KTDA to start paying farmers not less than 50 per cent of their deliveries as monthly payments with the balance being paid as annual bonus. 

“Farmers who supplied their leaf to Litein Tea Factory last year, for instance, earned a total of Sh32 per kilogramme of tea they supplied to the factory. The first payment was Sh18 and we earned a bonus of Sh14,” said Cheruiyot.  

William Ketteinya said the directive will create transparency in company secretarial services through individual tea factories engaging their own company secretary. 

“The creation of Kenya Tea Council is an overdue discussion. There is a need to relook at the current KTDA structures and remove impediments. KTDA insist on the creation of subsidiaries. It is not in the interest of tea growers to see new bodies being created,” said Cheruiyot.  

He also called for the scrapping of the current system of elections of factory directors.