Members of Parliament, (MPs) have intensified investigation on the contentious tea pricing in the country, putting Kenya Tea Growers Association (KTGA) and Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) on the hot seat to come clean on the woos surrounding the sector.
Appearing before the Agriculture and Livestock Committee for inquiry, KTGA CEO, Lindah Oluoch while answering the pricing question, explained to the Committee, chaired by John Mutunga (Tigania West), that one of the ways is through samples provided to a broker by the producer for teas to be presented at a scheduled auction.
On the value-chain costs for tea and how they can be minimized, Oluoch told the Members that the main contributors to cost are: labour, which she said has increased by 42% (straight-line) over the past five-year period; energy, which has increased by approximately 140% over the past ten-year period and regulatory charges, which have been enhanced owing to change in Government policy.
According to the KTGA boss, a stable regulatory environment would enable appropriate planning by tea producers and alignment of business strategies to enable investment in market expansion, product innovation and increased value addition.
“With respect to the frequent changes in regulatory charges, we propose a moratorium on any further enhancement of existing regulatory fees, alignment of regulatory fees to service provision and efficiency enhancement and sector-specific exemptions for tea owing to the export dependence of the sector. We believe that these interventions can preserve the competitiveness of the sector, the jobs provided by the sector and the national and county revenues that are derived from the tea sub sector,” the CEO said.
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Turning to the KTDA team, the Committee questioned the team which was led by the Chairman, Chege Kirundi on issues touching on balance in representation of the two regions in the Board of Management.
The Committee also sought a clarification on quality of tea accepted by KTDA from both regions, the organoleptic versus scientific tea testing methods, management of operations such as cost of productions in tea factories at the West and East of rift, possibility of installation of orthodox tea processing lines across factories among others.
The inquiry follows a public outcry by tea farmers from West of Rift over low bonuses as compared to their East of Rift counterparts.
The Committee has already visited tea factories from both regions and met with the farmers to establish the root cause of the low pay. It has also visited Mombasa Tea Auction and met with East African Tea Trade Association (EATTA), Tea Board of Kenya (TBK )and Chai Trading LTD.
The Committee is expected to submit its report on the inquiry on December 2, 2025 before the House proceeds for long recess.
By Juma Ndigo
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