Green tea farmers in Nandi County are slowly embracing purple tea to test the waters. The county, a leading producer of green tea after Kericho and Bomet, is turning purple as farmers diversify seeking to derive benefits of purple tea and its clones.
Already, a group of tea farmers have registered a company, Chai Imara Purple Tea Ltd, to capitalise on establishment of a Sh10 million cottage industry of which upon completion, will be processing the purple tea leaves. The plant will be located at Kamobo in Chesumei. The partners in the project include five directors and more than 130 small scale tea farmers from Chesumei, Emgwen and Mosop constituencies in Nandi. Most of them produce green and purple tea on their farms.