KTDA adopts new power project to lower costs

By Titus Too

The Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) has adopted mini-hydro projects to lower operational costs in its factories countrywide.

The latest initiatives would see drastic reduction of costs on electricity, which has over the years consumed a higher percentage of the operational budget.

Mr Lerionka Tiampati, KTDA Managing Director said factories had started a tree planting project which would also mitigate effects of climate change and provide wood fuel.

He said each of the agency’s 65 factories target at planting 700 acres of trees over the next five years.

Tiampati said apart from competing for the best quality of made teas, the agency also aimed at improving profits for farmers in the tea sector.

"To ensure that quality becomes our way of doing business rather than something we are merely known for, we have introduced a concept known as sustainable agriculture. This has enabled four of our factories to achieve the prestigious rain forest alliance certification," said Tiampati.

Tiampati spoke after Agriculture Minister Dr Sally Kosgei commissioned a Sh550 million Kaptumo KTDA factory in Nandi South District at the weekend. He said KTDA had increased its factory units from 45 in 2000 and to 65 in the country due to increased tea acreage.

"The area under tea has grown phenomenally and today, there are about 110,000 hactares under tea with an estimate 1 billion bushes," he said.

Good earnings

He said KTDA affiliate farmers have increased their earnings owing to increased global prices, favourable exchange rates and also measures taken by the agency to slash production costs. The agency, he added had also reduced labour costs by introducing electronic weighing solutions, which has eased tea collection, weighing and transportation.

Dr Kosgei said the tea sector was still the country’s leading foreign exchange earner and urged farmers in Nandi to exploit the favourable conditions to expand their tea acreage.

She said her ministry would fully enforce the tea bill once it was ascended.

The Minister said once the Bill is signed, it would maintain standards and quality in the tea industry.

Dr Kosgei said the Bill would assist maintain the tea industry saying the sector should not collapse like experienced in the coffee sector.

Meanwhile, tea prices could fall in coming auctions should the unrest in leading buyer Egypt persist, traders have said.

The Tea Board of Kenya said last week output leapt 27 per cent to a record 399 million kgs and export earnings by 40 per cent to Sh97 billion, surging past horticulture which brought in Sh78 billion.

Egypt bought over 93 million kgs in 2010, or 21 per cent of all the tea sold by the world’s leading exporter of black tea.