This archive report was first published on 19 August 2019.
August 19, 2019
Robert Murimi, the founder of Horera Tea Company, has been waiting for six years to get a license to process and export purple tea products. His wait is finally over, as the Tea Directorate of the Agriculture and Food Authority has licensed his company to manufacture, pack, and export purple tea products.
According to Murimi, the license is a big win for all purple tea farmers in the region, as it has not been easy to pursue. He said that farmers in his company extend up to Kirinyaga County and in Ragati tea catchment area alone, where there are 75,000 bushes of purple tea.
“Purple tea has been shortchanged because for a long time, we have been selling the special tea at the same prices as green one,” Murimi said. He added that if he manages to set up a factory and start processing purple tea, farmers from Nyeri, Kirinyaga, and other areas would be able to sell their produce at Sh2,000 per kilogramme, a significant increase from the current price of Sh15 per kilogramme of green tea.
Murimi has approached a financial institution to loan him Sh20 million to set up a tea factory. He has identified a structure where he will set up the processing machine for a start.
The Tea Directorate has licensed Horera Forest Edge Tea Company to process up to a million kilogrammes of purple tea and has already registered 86 purple tea farmers. The directorate's move is expected to boost the fortunes of farmers in Nyeri and surrounding areas, who have been struggling to sell their purple tea due to lack of exposure and access to local and international markets.
According to the Purple and Specialty Tea Association of Kenya, increasing the number of manufacturers of specialty tea in the country will motivate more farmers to venture into the variety, which fetches better prices. The association's executive secretary, Mercylynate Rotich, said that 20 members across the country had been registered, among them being small-scale producers, processors, packers, and manufacturers.
Rotich added that licensing of purple tea producers would also strengthen cottage industries. “Processing of specialty is still at a young stage, and many processors do not know what is expected as end product so as to match international standards,” she said.
