Hope for tea farmers as earnings rise

A farmer picking tea. PHOTO/FILE

What you need to know:

  • The company, he said is exploring alternative markets away from Egypt, Afghanistan and Middle East.

Improved tea earnings in the Rift Valley are likely to sway the minds of farmers who were planning to uproot the cash crop over poor returns.

Most tea factories in Nandi County paid growers Sh26 per kilogramme of the leaf this season compared to Sh10.20 last year when global prices dropped by about Sh22 for the same quantity due to surplus in production, translating to low bonuses to small scale farmers.

“The improved bonuses will cushion farmers from high cost of maintaining the cash crop and increase production due to ready market,” said Mr Mathew Lang’at from Chepkumia, Nandi County who has 10 acres of tea bushes.

The Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) says the increase in pay is the result of improved quality of green tea and an aggressive marketing strategy.

“We anticipate farmers to earn much better bonuses from high quality tea at the auction and aggressive marketing plans,” said Mr John Tega, KTDA director and chairman of Chebut and Kaptumo tea factories in Nandi County.

The KTDA which buys tea from about 560,000 small scale producers paid Sh63 billion in bonuses last year up from Sh52.6 billion the previous year.
Several multi-national tea companies in western Kenya did away with second payments due to falling global prices.

But Koisagat Tea Group of Companies paid over Sh200 million bonuses last year to growers who supply tea leaves to its factories in Nandi County despite the low profit caused by poor prices in the world market.

Declining tea prices

“The declining tea prices have direct impact to tea farmers who should be encouraged to do value addition to the produce to cushion them from financial challenges,” said Mr David Langat,  Chairman DL-Koisagat Tea Company, adding that the company is  committed to bailing farmers out of financial difficulties due to unstable global prices.

The company, he said is exploring alternative markets away from Egypt, Afghanistan and Middle East.

Some of the tea farmers had contemplated replacing tea bushes with eucalyptus trees and horticulture.

“The tea sector faces threat from alternative investments like farm forestry that require less capital but with attractive returns and the government needs to put in measures to cushion farmers from further losses,” said Mr Mathew Tuwei, a farmer from Saos Nandi County.

The tea farmers want the government to hasten the process of setting up fertiliser factory to cut down on production cost among other challenges facing the sector.

“The procurement process by KTDA for the fertiliser takes long. The same apply to release of bonus which translates to increased production costs,” said Mr Reuben Kosgei, a farmer from Nandi-Hills.

The KTDA sources fertiliser for tea farmers and sell it to them at Sh4,000 for 50kg bag. The government’s subsidised fertiliser goes for Sh2,000. The cheap fertiliser is distributed by the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) through its depots countrywide.

Tea farmers  in Nandi have also urged  their county government  to allow them to  buy multi-national tea companies whose leases are about to expire.
The tea farmers want to purchase the companies through their Cooperative Societies and credit from financial institutions.