A woman carries a sack with tea leaves on her back after plucking at a farm in Kapsabet, Nandi County on April 04, 2023. PHOTO | JARED NYATAYA | NMG
The government has been asked to unlock tea markets in countries that impose hefty import duties on the produce.
Stakeholders in the tea sector want President William Ruto's administration to ink bilateral agreements with the countries that import tea from Kenya.
According to Kenya's tea industry performance report for May 2022, Pakistan, Egypt, United Arab Emirates (UAE), United Kingdom (UK), Yemen, Russia, Sudan, Poland and Afghanistan imported the majority of Kenya's tea.
Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) national board member Chege Kirundi last week called on the government to intervene and negotiate with those countries on behalf of the Kenyan farmers.
"We are appealing to the government to help us in getting more markets for our tea. Specifically, the government should enter into bilateral agreements with governments where we sell our tea. There are certain countries that impose hefty duties on our tea when we sell into their markets," Mr Kirundi told Business Daily.
Mr Kirundi represents Zone 3 catchment at the KTDA board. KTDA Zone 3 catchment area comprises Kiru, Gatunguru, Kanyenyaini and Githambo tea factories.
"The negotiations will be so impactful because it will simply mean that we will be exporting tea to those countries at a lower duty. This will result in multiplication of effect in the tea trade," Mr Kirundi, who is also the chairman of Kiru Tea Factory Company Limited, said.
Mr Kirundi urged farmers to be patient as reforms continue to streamline the agricultural sub-sector.
"The future of tea farming is bright, and diversification is in place because majority of factories have begun processing orthodox tea," he said.
→jmurimi@ke.nationmedia.com
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