Govt to fund Toror Tea Factory as it separates with Tegat factory

The government will fund the Toror Tea Factory in Kericho County to the tune of Ksh 76 million for upgrading its infrastructure and aiding in value addition.

This was revealed by the Principal Secretary in the Department of Agriculture Dr. Kiprono Rono, who said that the money will be allocated to the factory as a grant and not a loan to the small scale tea farmers.

“We do not want to get feedback in the near future, that the allocation which is a grant from the government to this factory has been recovered from farmers, as a loan,” he added.

The PS who was speaking at the Toror Tea factory grounds during the presentation of a Certificate signaling the formal separation of Toror and Tegat Tea factories, said Small Scale Tea farmers from Toror have been agitating for separation for many years and finally it has come to pass.

Dr. Rono said, “Today marks a historic milestone as Toror Tea Factory transitions into an independent entity following formal separation from Tegat Tea factory. This shift towards autonomy is designed to place management and ownership directly at the hands of the local small scale tea growers. By decentralized operations from the parent company, Toror is now empowered to make localized decisions that reflect the unique needs of its shareholders and ensuring that the value created at the farm level stays within the community.”

The PS also took a swipe at the Kenya Tea Development Agency’s Warehousing Fees which he claimed were very exorbitant and competing with private warehouses in charges. “The saddest thing we see is when the warehouses which were built through the sweat of farmers charge the same tea farmers exorbitantly. It is unacceptable, “he observed.

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He proposed that, as an effort to reduce warehousing costs, packaged tea leaves should be transported directly from the tea factory to the Auction.

Another proposal, he said was the call for each payment to the individual, independent factories, to be made in dollars, which will make small scale tea farmers earn better returns.

Toror Factory Chairman of the Board of Directors Japhet Chepkwony, while thanking the government through the PS Agriculture for the much awaited separation, urged farmers to aim for the highest quality of green leaf supplied to the facility.

Chepkwony said Toror faced challenges of handling very high volumes of green leaf and pleaded for more funds to upgrade and expand the factory’s machinery especially, a machine which facilitates continuous Withering.

He thanked the small scale tea farmers aligned to the factory for supplying good quality green leaf, which he said had been sold out at the Mombasa Auction.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Tea Board of Kenya Willy Mutai urged the farmers to strive for delivery of high quality green leaf which he assured them will fetch good prices at the auction and give them higher returns.

Mutai said all the stock at the Mombasa warehouse, belonging to Toror factory had been successfully sold, adding, “due to the high quality of the products from this facility,96 per cent of the tea leaves were sold in the market. “

By Benedict Ng’etich

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