Agriculture CS Mithika Linturi has said his ministry aims to increase the total agricultural Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by one trillion from Sh2.9 trillion to Sh3.9 trillion.
The CS said he plans to achieve this in the next five years.
"Our objective is to expand agricultural GDP from Sh2.9 trillion to Sh3.9 trillion and grow the contribution of agro-processing to GDP by Sh130 billion over the next 5 years," Linturi said.
He said he plans to achieve this by encouraging product diversification and value addition along the agricultural value chains including the tea value chain.
Linturi was speaking on Friday after flagging off a consignment of the first ever consignment of Kenyan value-added teas to Australia.
He said President William Ruto had given a directive that there is need to enhance tea farmers’ net incomes and increase export earnings.
"Adding value to Kenyan teas before export is a viable route of growing the country’s manufactured exports, transforming the tea sub-sector in Kenya and ensuring food security," Linturi said.
He said the move to export value-added tea will help in the realisation of Ruto's directive to increase the volumes of value-added Kenyan tea exports from the current 1 percent to 50 per cent by 2027.
Linturi said increasing agricultural output and value addition is one of the three anchors that will drive transformation of the agriculture sector of which tea is among the priorities.
