Why Kenya should revive tea growing

In the past few months, news about the tea industry has painted a picture of frightening prospects. First, there were demonstrations by tea pickers against the introduction of tea-plucking machines to replace manual pickers.

Second, 50,000 pickers went on strike to demand a 30 per cent wage increase awarded by the Industrial Court. Third, farmers refused to pick their tea until there was clarification about the rate of bonus payment.

These events present rather gloomy indications of where Kenya’s tea industry is heading. Increasing wages is a danger to the industry if tea farmers cannot afford to pay workers. This was the case in Malawi, where many farmers abandoned tea farming and switched to other relatively more profitable activities.

There are also reports that farmers in central Kenya are contemplating switching to other farming alternatives. So, what will happen to the workers who depend on tea? Keeping wages below living standards seems not be a reasonable approach to keeping the tea industry alive.

This has been going on in India, where farm workers live in terrible conditions (poor housing and sanitation and deplorable working conditions).

Kenya has a lot in common with both India and Malawi. Kenya is the fourth leading tea producer in the world after China, India, and Sri Lanka and it competes with these countries for the export market.

However, Kenyan tea has never hit the market as a globally acclaimed pure and quality product. Instead, it is mostly handled by agents based in European countries who blend it with inferior teas from elsewhere. It, therefore, loses value and taste by the time it finally reaches the consumer.

The situation is worsened as Kenyan tea is sold largely in its generic unbranded form. In marketing circles, there is no such product as Kenyan tea. This ought to change in order to fetch better prices, as Ethiopia has done with its coffee.

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITORS

Our international competitors export more than 80 per cent of their produce as value-added tea — for example, decaffeinated, instant, flavoured, organically grown. Kenya loses about Sh20 billion annually because of limited value-addition.

There is considerable room to explore international arrangements to benefit Kenya by attracting investment in making the domestic value chain more competitive and generate employment as well as technology improvements.

For example, tea is an essential ingredient for manufacturing medicines, cosmetics, and perfumes. These three industries are growing faster than global tea output. This presents an opportunity for value-addition and diversification in product lines.

Tea production, processing, and marketing can be a significant source of income and welfare for many Kenyans. Tea is a prime economic activity in the rural areas, with more than 100 factories with a combined annual processing capacity in excess of 300 million kilos of green leaf. It employs more than 200,000 Kenyans at factory level, and many more people are engaged in transport, brokerage, and marketing activities.

There is little doubt that considerable benefits can be realised if the tea industry is properly managed. This includes its immense contribution to foreign exchange earnings.

Tea is important in terms of its economic, social, employment, environmental, and welfare contribution to many farmers, workers, and consumers.

Some people cannot work properly in offices without consuming tea or coffee. It is an office culture.

This calls for deeper interventions that are framed within the discipline of a political economy in order to disentangle the various implications if the tea industry is allowed to collapse.

Dr Omiti is an agricultural and resource economist. [email protected]