KTDA Increases Price Of Tea To Ksh 16 From The Current Ksh 15 per kilo

Tea farmers will receive Sh16 per kilogramme of tea supplied to factories monthly, KTDA chairman Peter Kanyago has said.

This means the agency will increase farmers’ pay by a shilling from the current Sh15 monthly advance payment. The new pay mode will be implemented by the beginning of March.

Kanyago said the tea agency is considering changing it’s payment module to suit farmers more in the face of stiff competition from private processing plants that have cut it’s market share from 60 to 56 percent.

Independent factories, he noted, had recorded a growth of 6 percent, from 40 percent to 46 percent, in the 2017/2018 financial year.

“Small-scale farmers’ production under KTDA stood at 54 percent countrywide while that from other players like the multinational tea companies accounted for greater production,” said Mr Kanyago.

He said the board is deliberating on the mode of payment that will be more appealing to farmers to discourage them from selling their tea to private factories and hawkers who have posed a threat to the sub-sector.

He also said that farmers will receive a Sh5 mini-bonus for produce delivered to their factories between July and December.