From left-Purple and Specialty Tea Association of Kenya chairman Karanja
Kinyanjui, Agriculture Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri and Fuzhou Benny Tea
Industry Company chairman Zhang Chaob during a media briefing at the
ministers’ office in Nairobi August 26, 2019. PHOTO | SALATON NJAU |
NMG
Kenyan farmers are set to export five million kilogrammes of
specialty teas worth Sh7 billion to China in the next three years under a
deal the State is negotiating with buyers from the Asian nation.
Agriculture
Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri said the export volumes will increase
to over 30 million kilogrammes annually, with an estimated value of
Sh40 billion in the next 10 years.
Mr Kiunjuri
yesterday hosted a delegation from Fuzhou Benny Tea Industry Company and
the China National Forest Industry Federation Ecological Tea and Coffee
Branch who are in Kenya to discuss ways of boosting trade in specialty
tea.
The seven-member delegation arrived on August 24
and is expected to sign memorandum of understandings (MoU) with five
specialty tea processing factories by September 1 to pave way for
exports.
The Kenyan side include officials from
Agriculture Food Authority (AFA), the Tea Research Institute and the
Purple Specialty Tea Association of Kenya.
The deal, Mr Kiunjuri said, will enhance tea trade and open the Chinese market for more Kenyan products.
“The desire was born out of the realisation that China is a
leading buyer of teas from external origins, while Kenya is a renowned
producer of top quality teas,” said Mr Kiunjuri.
“They
(Chinese buyers) will provide a warehousing facility for any Kenyan tea
company that would wish to sell their teas in China and assist them in
promoting their products.”
Mr Kiunjuri said a quality
sample submitted highlighted a need to have right kind of machinery and
technical expertise to manufacture Kenyan teas that meet Chinese tastes
and preferences.
“The Benny Tea Industry Company would
provide manufacturing machinery and technical expertise to at least five
factories in Kenya,” he said.
Purple and Specialty Tea
Association of Kenya Chairman Karanja Kinyanjui said deal would ease
marketing of the Kenyan commodity in the Asian giant, which has proved
difficult in the past.
His sentiments were echoed by
Ecological Tea and Coffee Branch of China National Forest Industry
Federation Secretary-General Zhu Zhonghai.
“We hope this partnership will enable us source more specialty from Kenya as we proceed forward,” Mr Zhonghai said.
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