Boom for farmers, factory releases Sh616m tea bonus

Tea farmers waiting to sell their produce to Nyankoba Tea Factory. [Stanley Ongwae, Standard]

It is a windfall for Nyankoba Tea Factory farmers after it declared a record high bonus of Sh616 million to growers.

Outgoing Kenya Tea Development Agency board member, Dr Thadeus Mangenya, who is among hundreds of KTDA directors who congregated in Naivasha to declare returns for their respective factories said Nyankoba's 22,000 growers will be paid Sh40 bonus per kg of green tea sold to the factory, an increase of Sh5, from the Sh35 that they were paid last year.

"Nyankoba paid the highest bonus in Gusii and we ensured that all Nyamira factories received a better pay of above Sh30.

"We paid our farmers Sh75 of the total sales the factory registered in the financial year, something that has never happened in the past," Mangenya said.

Rigoma Zone director, Nelson Mokaya, who is in charge of the factory's human resources, attributed the high returns to high quality of green tea as well as best management practices that motivated the production team to give their best.

Nyankoba Factory Unit Manager Joash Keraita said there was improved quality of tea sold to the factory from 14 million Kgs to 15.4 million Kgs this year and that despite the increased volume of green tea delivered, prices turned out to be the best in the Gusii region.

He noted that this year's returns were as a result of efficient systems that happened from maximum cooperation between farmers, management and business partners.

"We ensured there was high efficiency in our processing of tea. The cost of labor was well justified by high efficiency in ensuring high standards just as we made it possible to make movement of our product from the factory to users as efficient," Keraita said.

The management vowed to double the production by intensifying extension services and doubling efficiency in production.

The factory entered into books of successful factories in the National tea zones to pay their farmers well this year in the park that is led by Imenti Tea factory in Meru that will be paying its farmers Sh60 per Kg.

All directors from the 71 tea factories in Kenya have been congregating in Naivasha where they have been consolidating books of accounts with the KTDA Management Services before declaring their bonus pay outs.

The exercise is expected to be concluded on Thursday.