This archive report was first published on 11 September 2019.
Published on September 11, 2019, Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) is meeting to determine the second payment for small-scale farmers amidst a decline in tea prices.
Directors from 69 KTDA-managed factories have begun reviewing and approving the factories' annual accounts for the 2018-19 financial year, ahead of the declaration.
Tea prices at the Mombasa auction have been falling since the beginning of the year, with the average price per kilo dropping to Sh214 this year from Sh271 last year.
"The meetings to determine the second payments began on September 9 and will be followed by a formal declaration of the second payments once the process is complete," said KTDA in a statement.
Small-scale tea holders earned a record gross payment of Sh85.74 billion last year, riding on a bumper harvest in the past season that defied the fall in global market prices.
However, high inflation and depreciation of up to 50% of the Pakistani currency have been major contributors to the falling prices, with Pakistan being a key market for Kenyan tea, accounting for up to 38% of the total exports.
