Eatta to automate Mombasa tea auction centre at Sh100m

The East African Tea Trade Association (Eatta) is in the process of automating tea auction at a cost of Sh100 million to enhance efficiency in the trade.

Eatta director Jacob Kahiu said the association had since 2015 embarked on automating the tea auction at the Tea Trade Centre in Mombasa to make it easier for farmers to monitor the process.

However, he did not indicate when the automation project would be completed, adding that the system would cost between Sh75 million and Sh100 million.

“So far, we have made progress in rolling out the automation system although it is an expensive undertaking,” he said.

Speaking at the Tea Trade Centre in Mombasa, Mr Kahiu who is also the Tea Brokers Association chairman, said when the automation system is up and running it will help farmers keep abreast with the auction activities.

SPEED UP AUTOMATION

Earlier, Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Willy Bett had urged the Eatta officials to speed up the implementation of the automation for farmers to monitor the auction of their produce.

The CS said there had been a perception from farmers that the association was using the manual auction to manipulate tea prices.

“We want the automation of tea auction to be speeded up so that our farmers can follow the process of the pricing of their produce,” he said.

“The automated system will ensure transparency on how the tea from farmers is auctioned at the Tea Trade Centre in Mombasa,” Mr Bett added.

He said the government would set up centres in tea growing areas where farmers would access information on the auction of tea once the implementation of the automation system is completed.

On the other hand, the CS said his ministry was in the process of preparing a proposal seeking the waiver of levies and licenses for tea and sugar.

LEVIES WAIVER

He explained that the President ordered the ministry to come up with a proposal to speed up the waiver of levies and licenses for the two crops.

“The issue of levies and licenses has been a major challenge to the tea and sugar sub-sectors thereby affecting the small-scale growers.

“The waiving of the levies would be a huge relief to small-scale farmers who play a big role in the growing of tea and sugar in the country,” he said.

Mr Bett said the government would expand the tea market to enable farmers get better prices for their produce.

He said that the current markets for the Kenyan tea seem to be saturated, adding that the ministry was in the process of looking for new buyers to help stabilise the tea prices.

At the same time, the CS called on tea farmers to establish cottage industries for them to process their produce in order to add value and fetch higher prices for the commodity.

“It is through value addition that out tea farmers can reap a windfall rather than for them to depend on selling raw tea to foreign markets,” he said.

Farmers have been lobbying for the speedy implementation of the automation of tea auction to address claims of manipulation of prices.

They say that the manual auctioning process makes it difficult for them to monitor the pricing of their produce.