Farmers are set to reap big after the Kenya Tea Development Agency began installing orthodox tea processing lines in 13 factories.
The initiative is set to increase farmers’ earnings as orthodox tea fetches high prices in global markets compared to the crush, tear, curl (CTC) tea.
KTDA chairman David Ichoho said the government has injected Sh800 million towards the project to boost production and processing of the on-demand tea.
"There's a very high demand for orthodox tea in major markets including Russia and Iran and our current production cannot satisfy the demand. This is why we have embarked on the project of installing processing lines in more factories as we seek to diversify our tea production and broaden our markets," he said.
Ichoho spoke at Ndarugu tea factory in Gatundu South on Wednesday during the site handover ceremony for an orthodox tea processing plant. The project that will take five months to complete will cost Sh72 million.
Currently, only 10 KTDA-managed factories across all tea growing areas process orthodox tea.
Kagwi factory is the only one that processes the tea in Kiambu county but KTDA is introducing two more factories which include Kambaa and Ndarugu.
Ichoho said Kenya is out to stamp its authority as the top exporter of orthodox tea to major markets across the world through the project, which will increase production and guarantee farmers high returns.
Currently a kilo of orthodox tea is fetching up to Sh952 in the global markets compared to CTC tea, which fetches about Sh408 per kilo.
“We currently supply about 25 per cent of the tea to the markets which is way below the demand. We want to boost our supply and this will ensure that our farmers get high proceeds from their farming. Our data indicates that factories that have orthodox tea lines usually have an excess of Sh5 even in their bonus payments,” he said.
“Sri Lanka has been the major exporter of orthodox tea but it crumbled when the country’s economy collapsed in 2021. We are exploiting this window to introduce our Kenyan tea to more markets,” he said.
Tea production
At the same time, the chairman revealed that tea production has increased by more than 90 per cent from 62 million kilos to 117 million kilos in the last two months thanks to the rains.
He said the tea sector was drastically affected by the prolonged drought that hit the country.
This saw tea production in the months of January and February decline by 60 per cent.
“Our tea growing areas rely on rainfall and we have recorded a tremendous increase in production and we hope that it will keep on increasing,” he said.
Ichoho said KTDA has paid Sh2.4 billion for the 117 million kilos of green leaf that the farmers delivered to the factories.
Ndarugu tea factory chairman Charles Wanyoike hailed the project as a life-changing initiative for farmers, saying that boosting the farmers’ earnings will go a long way in alleviating poverty and improving their livelihoods.
“It was the vision of our forefathers who built this factory to have orthodox tea processing lines because they knew it’d bring treasures to the farmers. We have actualised our dreams and our farmers will eke high returns from their produce,” Wanyoike said.
