The Kenya Tea Development Agency has linked the boost in tea sales to the Standard Gauge Railway.
In a statement on Thursday, the Kenya Tea Development Agency said since tea buyers and packers have embraced the usage of SGR, factories have managed to export tea worth more than Sh600 million since May 2019.
This is only in nine tea factories managed by KTDA which have used the SGR to transport over two million kilograms of tea to the market in a process known as ex-factory containerization.
KTDA said this underpins the continued commitment by the agency and its factories to leverage on the Government's investment on infrastructure development.
This enhanced logistical efficiencies and savings from the use of the railway to make direct sales.
Beforehand, where tea was taken to the auction in Mombasa, it would be processed through Direct Sales, stuffed into containers for export by factories and transported to the port of Mombasa without going to the warehouse.
Now, from the factories, the containers are ferried by road to the Nairobi Inland Container Depot (ICD) in Embakasi, where they are railed to the port using the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) for export.
KTDA Management Services Managing Director, Alfred Njagi, said this process has led to enhanced efficiencies in the transportation of made tea to the market, with factories receiving payments much earlier.
"Ex-factory containerization continues to be an increasingly preferable option for big packers that have direct sales arrangements with factories. Over and above being a more efficient method of transporting tea by cutting down on delays occasioned by road transport and warehousing, it has added advantages in that tea factories do not incur auction expenses such as warehouse storage and brokerage costs," he said.
"It presents an opportunity for factories to leverage the SGR framework to reduce costs; while getting payments processed faster for their sales. For the customers, this process ensures quality of product is maintained due to the shorter time it takes to reach them and also guarantees product safety due to lower multi handling of the tea."
