The government has taken a firm step to restore sanity in the tea industry by imposing strict rules to dictate the operations of tea producers and tea factories across the country.
In a circular, the Tea Board of Kenya (TBK), has banned hawking of green leaf and roadside collections which has become prevalent in tea-growing areas.
“All tea factories and producers are hereby cautioned against engaging in green leaf hawking, collection of green along the roadside where there are no collection centres, using green brokers and using leaf collection vehicles that are not registered with the Board,” TBK CEO Willy Mutai said.
According to the CEO, the move is part of the reforms currently being implemented in the sub-sector towards sustainability and profitability.
The reforms, he stated, include the need to improve the quality of green leaf processed by tea factories and producers for better tea prices and returns to the tea growers and investors.
Tea hawking is where the farmers sell green tea leaves to tea factories other than the one they are registered with, which is against the Tea Act of 2020.
The influx of private tea factories has contributed to the rise of this malpractice where farmers are lured into selling the green leaf in exchange for higher prices.
This according to TBK, has seen the quality of tea drop over the years hence the poor pay to farmers.
Recently, Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said the government is implementing a raft of reforms to ensure better returns for tea farmers across the country.
Kagwe further said the ministry will gazette the green leaf quality standard guidelines to curb the harvesting and processing of low-quality tea.
He said the government will gazette the Tea Regulations to operationalise the Tea Act, 2020.
