Kiambu tea farmers stands to benefit directly from selling tea to Lesotho which does not grow tea and largely depends from South Africa .
Lesotho’s Minister for Agriculture and Food Security Simon Litsane led a delegation on Wednesday to Kiambu county tea farmers and Ngorongo tea factory to establish a relationship that could see kiambu being the leading county in the best tea worldwide benefit.
Litsane said that they are interested in growing black tea as a country and are testing their soil to see if it is viable since there is a growing demand for tea in Lesotho.
“We are impressed by what we have seen and we are looking forward as a country also t6o venture into tea growing and I invite Kenyan farmers and especially Ngorongo factory marketing team to tour Lesotho and help us out as we look into buying tea in Kenya,’ said Litsane.
Litsane said by establishing bilateral cooperation with Kenya tea will create a lot of jobs in both Lesotho and Kenya as a way of having a stable economic outlook for both countries.
‘Lesotho imports most of their foods and having agricultural cooperation where our country will benefit is a step in the right direction to address food security and I invite investors from Lesotho to take advantage as it will also create jobs,” said Litsane.
Ngorongo Tea Factory General Manager George Omuga said they are introducing other orthodox means of growing Purple tea that will have a high level value.
“ we are pleased with the new market and i strongly urge tea farmers to continue growing tea as he predicts that prices will go up this coming season,” said Omuga.
He appealed to tea farmers to desist from uprooting tea saying tea is a long term investment and farmers should not think of uprooting since the price will go up in the coming season.
James Njiraini a tea farmer said that though there is uproar over prices in tea kiambu county government should embrace the opportunity of trading directly so as to help farmers get good returns.
Kiambu acting governor James Nyoro has since pledged that he will revive the coffee and tea sector in kiambu county hoping to get more direct sales of agriocu;ltural produce through value addition.
Early this year a group from the US toured Kiambu county coordinated by the Grand Island Area Economic Development Corporation (GIAEDC) led by Nebraska State Senator Dan Quick and GIAEDC President Dave Taylor seeking for possibility of making Nebraska a distribution centre for coffee sourced directly from farmers.
ENDS…….
