Farmers want more factories in tea zone

What you need to know:

  • Former Kenya Tea Growers Association managing director Gideon Too and Sireet Tea Company director Joseph Lagat, speaking at separate meetings, said the existing factories were inadequate.
  • He said the government should implement bold measures to save small scale tea farmers from low prices in the world market.
  • They further urged the government to allow individual farmers to build their own tea factories.

Farmers’ representatives want more factories built in tea producing areas to process herbal tea for export.

They urged the government to construct the factories to improve processing of the produce and save them from fluctuating global prices.

Former Kenya Tea Growers Association managing director Gideon Too and Sireet Tea Company director Joseph Lagat, speaking at separate meetings, said the existing factories were inadequate.

“Farmers need more factories for processing herbal tea, which could enable them to generate high profits and improve their standards of living,” Mr Too said.

He said the government should implement bold measures to save small scale tea farmers from low prices in the world market.

Mr Lagat urged national and county governments to finance the building of factories in counties where tea is grown.

That would help the farmers to fetch better prices through value addition, he said.

“More than 40,000 small scale tea farmers in Nandi want the national and county governments to build six tea factories for value addition,” he said.

INDIVIDUAL FACTORIES

They further urged the government to allow individual farmers to build their own tea factories.

“Other tea producing countries such as India have allowed small scale farmers and cooperative societies to establish individual tea factories.
Transport expenses

“Kenya should introduce the programme as way of cutting down on transport expenses for farmers,” Mr Lagat said.

He urged the government to source for new markets for tea exports instead of relying solely on traditional buyers.

Nandi Tea Company general manager Abdi Hussein said the future of the tea industry depends on local consumption.

Kenyans consume less than 10 per cent of locally produced tea, compared to other countries which consume up to 95 per cent of the tea they produce, he said.