This archive report was first published on 26 September 2019.
Kenya's tea industry is facing a crisis as the rapid growth in factory capacity compromises the quality of the beverage, leading to falling prices in the international market.
According to tea buyers, the declining quality has negatively impacted the competitiveness of Kenyan tea, resulting in reduced demand.
"Factories are now competing for volumes and not quality," said Peter Kimanga, a tea exporter with Global Tea Commodities. "As such, the quality of our Kenyan tea that we used to enjoy some five or 10 years ago has been going down, affecting the price of the commodity," he added.
Traditionally, Kenyan tea has enjoyed healthy demand internationally due to its superior quality, which has seen buyers seek it to blend with other low-quality beverages.
"Kenyan tea is of such a high premium in some consuming markets that the importers keep track of the auction trends on a weekly basis and will make purchase orders for a specific plantation or garden marks," said East African Tea Trade Association (Eatta) managing director Edward Mudibo.
However, the Tea Directorate says that about five new factories have been registered in the last three years, while existing ones have expanded their production lines.
Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA) director general, Anthony Muriithi, said they have been addressing the issue of quality by conducting quarterly checks in factories.
"The difference in quality might have been brought about by the new machines that have been installed in recent years, which have different parameters from the ones that have been in use for long," said Mr Muriithi.
He also blamed the change in quality on agronomical practices such as poor plucking of the tea at the farms.
Tea prices at the auction have remained low since the beginning of the year, touching a low of Sh176 before gaining marginally to above Sh200 in the last four weeks.
