Farmers expect better returns from purple tea

Farmers in South Rift are turning to high-return purple tea variety as returns from traditional species contracts. PHOTO | JARED NYATAYA | FILE

What you need to know:

  • The growers, who were introduced to the high-return variety by Sot Tea Growers Sacco are scouting for a direct market for the produce

Tea farmers in South Rift expect higher income from new purple tea species as prices for the traditional variety declines.

The growers, who were introduced to the high-return variety by Sot Tea Growers Sacco are scouting for a direct market for the produce.

The society’s chairman, Mr Zakayo Sang, said the company had bought the medicinal variety from Tea Research Foundation of Kenya and has already raised over a million seedlings for sale to both members and non-members. A member gets a seedling at Sh15 while non-members part with Sh20, Mr Sang said.

PROCESSING PURPLE LEAF

The society has established a special line for processing purple leaf in the ongoing construction of Sh330 million tea factory at Merigi, Bomet County.

The society will pay between Sh50 and Sh100 per kilogramme of the crop to farmers for the new variety compared to the Sh14 per kilogramme that Kenya Tea Development Agency-run factories pay for the traditional green leaf at the moment.

“The company is exploring ways of marketing the produce direct to tea buyers in the world market instead of the Mombasa auction,” Mr Sang said.

“We need an immediate solution to the pricing problem. If a direct market can also be given to us for the current varieties we have, we will have better pay to invest in purple tea,” noted Vincent Kipngeno a tea farmer.