Munya opens orthodox tea factory in Nyamira

Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya opened Matunwa Tea Factory in Nyamira on Tuesday.

The CS was accompanied by the Kenya Tea Development Agency board chairman David Ichoho, Nyamira Senator Okong’o Omogeni and Kitutu Masaba MP Shadrack Mose.

Matunwa is a satellite of Nyansiongo Tea Factory.

It is expected to enhance the country’s production of orthodox teas to more than 2.8 million kilos against the target of 10 million kilos by 2025.

Munya said the factory is of great importance to the tea sub-sector and the country at large due to the role it is expected to play in product diversification.

“The government has made deliberate efforts to promote product diversification with a focus on the production of orthodox and specialty teas to reduce over-reliance on black CTC teas,” he said.

The CS said Kenya is a major exporter of black CTC teas, which have been facing a glut in the global market over the last decade.

In 2022, out of the 537 million kilos of teas produced in the country, only two million were orthodox teas.   

Munya said trends on tea prices over the last 10 years have shown that orthodox teas have been fetching better prices than black CTC.

He said the government through the Tea Board of Kenya has so far licensed another 10 KTDA-managed factories to establish orthodox processing lines.

“The government is currently implementing market development activities in orthodox tea markets like Russia, China, UAE, Iran, Iraq, Poland and Germany to promote Kenya orthodox teas,” the CS said.

Ichoho said the opening of the 71st tea factory in the country was a great achievement in the smallholder tea farmers sector.

He said the sales for orthodox teas in the last three months shot up by 37 per cent compared to the same period last year.

“We have 10 factories producing orthodox teas and the total volume sold in the last three months is 1.2 million kilos.

"We are working on market diversification since we are largely a CTC-producing nation. This will stabilise our earnings and reduce market dependency and concentration risks,” the chairman said.

Omogeni and Mose appealed to the CS to subsidise farm inputs including fertiliser.

The cost of fertiliser has gone up due to the escalating war between Russia and Ukraine.

Ichoho appealed to the government and diplomatic missions abroad to support KTDA in market expansion, as some of the markets require inter-government engagements.

(Edited by Bilha Makokha)