Kenya seeks to transform tea sector to boost supply

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NAIROBI, May 14 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's agriculture ministry has renewed its commitment to transforming the tea sector to meet growing global demand.

Peter Munya, cabinet secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Cooperatives, told a forum on tea reforms in Nairobi on Thursday that reforms are being undertaken to help revitalize the tea sector, which experienced declining trends over the last few years.

Munya said that poor leadership of the sector, particularly that of the respective smallholder tea factory companies, has improved following countrywide elections of new managers.

The government has migrated tea trading to a daily electronic trading platform, he said, adding that all tea produced in Kenya for the export market will be sold exclusively through the auction process once the reforms come into operation.

A taskforce on tea sector price stabilization, which is aimed at ensuring smallholder tea farmers get better payment, will present its findings in August, Munya said.

"We are currently facilitating a regulatory framework with a view to ensure fair play for the benefit of stakeholders in the respective economic platforms," he said.

Munya said that the decline in tea earnings has threatened livelihoods of over 6 million Kenyans engaged in the tea value chain directly and indirectly.

Plans are in the work to raise tea output in Kenya to compete favorably with other tea producing countries on the global market, he said.

Harsama Kello, acting director general of Kenya's state corporation Agriculture and Food Authority, said that the authority's tea directorate has defined market preferences that accord opportunity to respond through product diversification.

Tea has been one of Kenya's leading foreign exchange earners, generating 120 billion shillings (1.09 billion dollars) in export earnings in 2020. Enditem

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