By Gatithi Karuoya
The government recognition of Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) as the major cog in the flourishing of country’s tea industry is a welcome development for farmers and all stakeholders.
Tea farmers have for a long time felt neglected at times even abandoned by the government of the day but the pronouncement by President Ruto and the raft of measures he spelt out to revitalize the industry are bound to energise the important sub-sector.
The President announcement of a massive Sh 1billion injection into KTDA to build a value addition facility in Nairobi, the removal of Value Added Tax (VAT) on locally produced packaging as well as the ban on tea hawking are critical interventions.
With the government ban on the disastrous tea hawking menace and a fresh team at the helm of the KTDA. Kenya’s tea industry and especially the long-suffering farmers are approaching the future with confidence.
A major investment that is bound to increase income to farmers is the Sh 1 billion for a value addition facility to be built in Nairobi and similar to KETEPA in Kericho.
The removal of Value Added Tax (VAT) for locally packaged teas will make locally packaged tea more competitive and accessible to more people and likely to increase consumption and therefore more earnings.
And the new KTDA leadership led by the chairman Chege Kirundi is a breath of fresh air as he has announced major reforms contained in a strategic plan that he plans to launch in July this year that puts farmers interests at the centre.
Kirundi said the new blue print aims at repositioning KTDA on a long term sustainability trajectory with particular emphasis on addressing climate change challenges, enhancing value addition and expanding market opportunities especially in the African continent.
He said his plan is to enhance farmer incomes by revising the allocation of profits from KTDA’s subsidiaries and reducing input costs. This is what farmers wants to hear from the top KTDA leadership.
Kirundi noted that climate change is reducing yields and quality of tea, ageing tea farmers, declining acreage under tea owing to land subdivision and farmers ditching tea for high yielding real estate sector. KTDA and its 680,000 farmers contribute 60 per cent of all locally produced tea.
He said with the boardroom fights now over, the leadership is reading from the same script adding that the relationship with the government remains cordial.
Farmers have welcomed the positive messages coming from the government and the industry and their key prayer is that politics be kept out of the tea industry and the ban on hawking be implemented fully.
As the demand for tea continues to grow globally and local consumption increases an equivalent growth in returns is projected ensuring that the sector remains profitable going into the future.
The tea industry remains a critical pillar of the national economy and supports thousands of farmers directly and many other players along the value chain. Tea exports continue to be a major stabilizing factor of the Kenyan currency and the economy at large.
These gains that have been built over the years mainly by the farmers who have ensured proper crop husbandry so as to maintain the high quality of tea – that fetches premium prices.
However, politicization of the sector is threatening to claw back the gains and serious instabilities have been reported in areas especially West of the Rift Valley. Certain policy decisions have also impacted negatively on the industry and a rethink is no longer optional but mandatory.
For this sector to remain standing and competitive politics must be kept out and management systems must be strengthened to introduce quality improvements and reduce operational costs.
The success of this sector cannot be discussed without mentioning the great role played by the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) which manages over 50 factories with over 600,000 small scale farmers.
But KTDA’s important role is currently being undermined by the haphazard licensing of private factories without catchment areas and who are now encroaching on tea produced by farmers already under the wings of KTDA.
Competition of green leaf from private owned factories has led to decreased quality standards which has become a challenge and which will impact on earnings of Kenyan tea at the global market.
A policy decision by the Ministry of Agriculture to introduce a reserve price which was only forced on KTDA managed factories has had a negative impact. Private factories are not affected by the reserve and have been buying green leaf from farmers at a lower price.
This hawking menace is so brazen that you will see find trucks from private factories lining to purchase green leaf from KTDA factories owned buying centres. The Tea Board of Kenya (TBK) is requested to enforce the elimination of tea hawking so as to return sanity to the sector which will eventually benefit the farmer.
It was reassuring to hear Agriculture Cabint Secretary Mutahu Kagwe, while addressing tea brokers, buyers, and tea factory chairmen order TBK to crack the whip on Green Leaf Tea hawking.
KTDA’s newly elected chairman Chege Kirundi has also weighed on the issue and said collaboration was key in handling green leaf tea hawking to ensure the tea farmer benefit
Due to green leaf hawking some KTDA factories are left with low green leaf increasing their operational cost and reduced earnings for farmers. This has led to fear that these factories are facing collapse putting the livelihoods of farmers and workers at serious risk.
Already many KTDA factories West Rift Valley are struggling to remain operational amid deepening financial constraints that has left workers unpaid and farmers without reliable markets for their tea.
It is said that leading politicians from the region are establishing numerous private tea factories, which some fear could be part of a larger scheme to undermine KTDA in the region.
The alleged collusion between powerful politicians and tea brokers has raised concerns that the West of Rift’s KTDA factories are being deliberately weakened to benefit private investors, with small-scale farmers being the biggest casualties of this shift in control.
The financial imbalance between KTDA factories in the West and East of Rift has also been cited as evidence of a systemic crisis, with tea from the Western region fetching significantly lower prices despite being of comparable or even superior quality.
Critics argue that KTDA directors in the West of Rift have been reduced to mere figureheads who serve the interests of political elites rather than advocating for the welfare of workers and farmers.
Without urgent intervention, stakeholders fear that KTDA factories in the region may soon collapse, leaving thousands of farmers and employees without a source of livelihood.
The Writer is Small Scale Tea Farmer Based in Kirinyaga County
