State mulls ban on direct tea sales

Kenya plans to ban direct tea sales and will enforce an electronic-trading auction system in proposed reforms following an industry probe ordered by President Uhuru Kenyatta.

The industry investigation came after smallholders complained about the Kenya Tea Development Agency, the company that markets most of the produce from one of the world’s biggest exporters of black tea. Tea will “be sold exclusively through the auction process,” the Ministry of Agriculture said in new proposals.