Tea stakeholders bet on new varieties to boost earnings

By NICHOLAS WAITATHU

The future of majority of small scale tea farmers in the country looks bright, thanks to ambitious strategies being undertaken by the industry stakeholders to grow sales.

Key benefits to this latest shift are to enhance farmers’ income and boost the national economy. Tea Board of Kenya (TBK) managing director Sicily Kariuki explained that efforts are being made by the industry players to encourage farmers to start growing other teas.

Such teas include white, purple, green, special, and orthodox tea currently on high demand and as well attracting premium prices in the international market.  She reckons that, the economic crisis in Europe does not seem to have affected the high-value tea market.

High value tea

The East African tea producers, she says, need to step up their production and marketing activities to increasingly target high-value tea market components.

According to Kariuki, although quality standards are met for black teas, there is a need to broaden the variety of teas offered for sale with more mixed blends being exported. A particular area of growth has been sales of new varieties.

In an interview with Weekend Business, Kariuki says that Kenya prides herself as the producer of the best black tea in the world due to the good agronomical and manufacturing practices and the ideal tea growing conditions.

 These advantages, she notes, makes Kenya tea the most sought after beverage in the world.

She contends that development of the sub-sector will in the long run contribute to growth in farmers’ earnings. 

“Together with other stakeholders we are fast tracking several initiatives aiming to take the industry to the next level,” Kariuki said.

 She explained the idea is to ensure the production mix of tea is balanced, as tea growers will be inspired to produce other teas.

Kariuki says there is huge interest by investors, scientists, and researchers to support these initiatives so that the local industry can respond to the changing global market dynamics, especially in the emerging economies. 

“Our idea is to expand the production basket so that we can assist farmers exploit the global potential in terms of demand and high prices. Further, the industry new direction will contribute to expansion of Kenya market share in the international market,” she added. 

Currently, area under tea is 170,000 hectares, but Kariuki hastened to add that researchers are working on new varieties, which can respond to the changing climatic conditions. Kenya tea grows well in high altitudes areas, mostly near forests, as prescribed by agronomists. Tea cannot be grown beyond an area called brown line and current tea varieties grow well in these areas though of late owing to vagaries of climate change the scenario has been changing.

Climate change

Tea Research Foundation of Kenya (TRFK) Managing Director Dr. Eliud Krieger confirmed that his organisation has been working on drought-resistant varieties.

Further, Krieger stated that the development of the new varieties is in response to the impact of climate change, hailstones, frost, new diseases and pest.

“Beyond the traditional growing zones (brown line) tea farming is not conducive, but we have made progress in terms of developing crop varieties able to respond to the new climate realities, “Krieger stated. 

Tea production has increased tremendously for the last decade with farmers equally raking in impressive profits, thus becoming the country’s leading foreign exchange earner. Last year farmers earned Sh127 billion compared to Sh115 billion earned in 2011.

 Since 2003 production period, tea output in the country has increased by 26 per cent, from 292.9 million kilogrammes to 369.2 million kilogrammes recorded in 2012 crop year.

 Kariuki explained that efforts are being made to enhance local consumption. Kenya compared to her competitors in the world market is fairing badly in terms of local consumption.