Tea farmers to earn less due to overproduction

Over 600,000 small-scale tea farmers are likely to earn less this year (2019/20) owing to the overproduction of the commodity worldwide, Kenya Tea Development Agency (KDTA) has announced.

Agency Head of Field Services and Logistic Kanja Thuku said supply of tea in the international market had surpassed the demand, resulting in poor prices.

Thuku said demand and supply were still playing a major role in bringing down the prices, noting production locally had hit a 1,000,000 billion kilogram annually.

“Production in January has doubled from last year, a scenario which has never been witnessed before, this is likely to have a major implication on prices,” Thuku explained.

Speaking during the Farmers Field School (FFS) at Chinga tea factory, Thuku told farmers to get ready for low earning from the produce.

“Prices will continue to be on downward trends as long as overproduction persist. The demand is not commensurate with the supply,” the official said.

Unfortunately, he said that prices are not likely to improve any time soon adding that this will not be good news for farmers.

He said the key to unlocking the current poor tea prices at international markets was to diversify to other brands like Orthodox, which stood a better chance of fetching better returns.

It is for this reason he noted that KTDA had installed an orthodox line at Chinga factory, which is currently processing over 10,000 kilogram of orthodox tea.

"An increased production of Black CTC tea globally was responsible for poor prices, that's why we want to cushion farmers against dependent on one brand," Thuku added.