Senators set date for talks with KTDA on falling tea prices

A tea picker in Nandi Hills. Thousands of tea-pickers will lose their jobs after farmers introduced machines to harvest leaves. FILE PHOTO | JARED NYATAYA |

What you need to know:

  • Producer prices for tea have hit a six-year low with bonus payments of between Sh26.50 a kilo and Sh8.50 a kilo.
  • KTDA directors on Tuesday met the National Assembly’s Agriculture Committee for more than four hours to explain the decline in tea earnings for farmers.

Senators have called a crisis meeting to discuss the poor prices of tea.

The meeting, scheduled for October 10, will be attended by senators from tea growing areas and officials from the Kenya Tea Development Agency.

Producer prices for tea have hit a six-year low with bonus payments of between Sh26.50 a kilo and Sh8.50 a kilo, down from a high of Sh41.20 and Sh21 last year.

The Senate’s Agriculture Committee chairman, Mr Kiraitu Murungi, told his colleagues about the meeting on Tuesday after Bomet Senator Wilfred Lesan requested a statement in the House over the matter.

Mr Murungi admitted that the situation in the tea industry was dire.

“This committee is aware of a serious crisis caused by a shocking fall in tea earnings that has been at its worst in the last two decades,” said Mr Murungi.

He said tea farmers from some parts of the country have rebelled and boycotted picking tea and the situation is likely to get ugly unless urgent measures were taken to reverse the sorry state of affairs.

“Some of the farmers have humiliated directors and purported to sack managers of tea factories. We need a comprehensive report on the problem,” said Mr Murungi.

'STRANGLED BY GREED'

KTDA directors on Tuesday met the National Assembly’s Agriculture Committee for more than four hours to explain the decline in tea earnings for farmers.

In the Senate, Prof Lesan said the tea industry was being wrecked by self-centred individuals. “The tea industry is being strangled by greed at the tea auction and management of tea by people with a don’t care attitude towards farmers.”

Deputy Speaker Kembi Gitura, who is also the Murang’a Senator, said squabbles that threatened the survival of the tea sector should be addressed.

Senator Chris Obure (Kisii, ODM) described the matter as weighty, saying he had previously brought a petition on the plight of tea farmers to the attention of the House.

“For long, earnings from tea exports have made tremendous contribution to the country’s economy and we should not sit and watch as the sector goes to the dogs,” he said.

Senator Daniel Karaba (Kirinyaga, TNA) said there were cases of under-weighing of tea leaves which translated to loss of revenue for farmers.

POOR MARKETING

Mr Amos Wako (Busia, ODM) said though tea, coffee and tourism were the highest foreign exchange earners, Kenya was not getting its due share because of poor marketing.

“Kenyan tea is used to blend tea from other countries because of its quality but it is not well marketed,” he said.

At the meeting with the National Assembly’s committee, KTDA managing director Lerionka Tiampati said the agency had no control over the price at auction in Mombasa, where 11 brokers handled tea from 54 factories.

The committee was concerned that tea from the Mount Kenya region was sold at a significantly higher price than tea from areas west of the Rift Valley.

The lowest bonus was paid to farmers from Ogembo Factory at Sh8.50, with the highest going to farmers from Imenti at Sh26.

While KTDA argued that a glut in the market had caused the collapse in bonus payments, the committee was of the view that there were bigger problems in the industry.

Reported by Dennis Odunga and John Ngirachu