KTDA tries to smother the illegal tea trade :: Kenya

The tea sector is threatened by the increasing hawking of green leaves in the Mt. Kenya region.

This practice, prevalent in the Rift Valley and western regions, is spreading slowly in tea growing areas in Kiambu, Murang & A, Nyeri, Kirinyaga and Meru Counties.

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The Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA), which processes and sells tea to small farmers, feels the pressure of peddling tea while deliveries to large factories are decreasing.

Green leaf peddling is conducted by middlemen who buy products from farmers contracted by KTDA for delivery to private factories. The hawkers buy a kilo of tea at Sh22 and pay on the spot, unlike the KTDA-run factories that pay Sh15 farmers a kilo a month and an annual bonus.

"From the Sh15, pickers will be paid Sh12 and the rest will be deducted to repay the loans, in the end, you will get nothing," said Peter Kariuki, a tea producer in Kiria-ini.

Rising demand and prompt payment have spurred illicit activities in which unscrupulous individuals burst into tea collection centers or trucks carrying tea to factories. In some cases, tea pickers steal from farm owners and sell the products to brokers, sometimes at ridiculous prices.

In addition to the fact that theft is punishable by law, the Crop Act prohibits anyone who is not registered in a factory. buy, sell or even carry tea. Persons found guilty are liable to a fine not exceeding 1 million shillings or imprisonment for not exceeding two years, or both.

Two weeks ago, two men were arrested in Karatina illegally buying tea from farmers. Prior to that, a vehicle was seized at Murang & a and two people were arrested.

Emergency meeting

Last week, the Tea Branch – the body responsible for licensing tea factories – held an urgent meeting in Murang & # 39; a which brought together stakeholders from the sector tea to address the issue.

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The interim leader of the Tea Branch, Anthony Muriithi, stressed the need for a permanent solution that would not isolate other players from the l & # 39; industry.

"Hawking is a problem and we need a solution that will work in the future for things to work.When bad practices become good practice, it means that systems do not work" , he said.

According to Maina Kimani, a small farmer in Kiambu, farmers decide to sell their tea to hawkers to bypbad the loans they owe to financial institutions.

The resulting effect of factories losing millions of shillings to middlemen, he said, was that factories could end up running below capacity yet some were paying back loans for the first time. expansion.

"This is going to create unused resources, which are a loss for the farmers who financed the construction of the factories, the expansions being generally made to increase the processing capacity based on the projections in order to increase the production" .

Capacity less than capacity

But while KTDA remains wary of factories with capacity below capacity, some private millers claim that tea peddling is not entirely to blame.

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Michael Gakungu, chief executive of Central Highlands Tea Company, who is setting up Kiriti Tea Factory in Mathioya, says the decline in tea processing is due to other factors .

"No one is in favor of peddling but this is not the only problem of the industry.There could be other areas to consider, such as the potential of bush, "he said.

million. Gakungu emphasized the need to increase extension services as the average number of kilos produced by a tea plant has decreased. He said that tea production was also affected by the subdivision of land.

"The contract between a farmer and a plant should be worked out to show how much tea is expected of them because if they do not bring me this tea, they affect the ability."

Part of the blame was also attributed to the Tea Branch, which is accused of allowing too many private tea factories.

Farmers call on the government to crack down on the cottage industries that are being created under the pretext of processing specialty tea, but which are eventually attracting regular tea producers.

Examination rules and regulations

"The government should review the licensing regulations for artisbad tea factories to ensure that applicants have adequate green leaves to ensure that their establishment will not harm existing mills. by peddling green leaves., could lead to the closure of factories as a result of operating below economic capacity, "said Kimani.

And according to Philip Githua, director of the Ragati tea factory in Nyeri, the key to eliminating tea peddling is to reduce the time that farmers receive their premiums.

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"What drives farmers to sell their tea is a desperate need for money: wait for a whole year for their earnings, it 's to ask KTDA too much. four months rather than waiting for them for a whole year, "he said.

"Right now, you can not tell the farmers not to sell their tea, I tried and they were very hostile," he added.