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Tea Agency is Blamed for Leaf Hawking

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Published on Tuesday, 03 July 2007 08:04
Small scale tea farmers yesterday blamed hawking of green leaf on frustration by the Kenya Tea Development Agency.They told the Nyanza provincial director of Agriculture, Mr Zakayo Magara, that the KTDA buying centres were controlled by arrogant clerks who falsified weights and rejected their tea, claiming it was of poor quality.However, agents of multi-national companies buy the same tea at a lower price but pay cash.

Survival of factories

They also complained that most of the so-called bonus was lost due to deductions by KTDA and the factories.Mr Magara said tea hawking was threatening the survival of six tea factories in Nyamira District.

Addressing the farmers at Nyangoge, the officer promised to present the farmers' grievances to the Kenya Tea Board and KTDA.
He told the farmers that hawking of leaf was affecting the quality of tea because those who bought it did not provide loans to buy farm inputs like fertilizer.

Mr Magara explained that if hawking continued and the factories, which were owned by the farmers, closed, they would be bought out by the same people who were encouraging hawking.
"We want to pre-empt a situation where farmers will lose their factories, in which they have heavily invested," he said.