Tea farmers from Ndarugu and Theta Express Concern over infiltration of the sector by cartels
Tea farmers from Ndarugu and Theta tea factories in Gatundu South, Kiambu County’ have expressed concern over infiltration of the sector by cartels whose aim is to milk them dry.
The farmers pointed an accusing finger to the cartels and brokers for their reduced earnings despite the relentless efforts that the government has made to streamline the sector in a bid to make it more viable.
Farmers who spoke to the media took issue with the seize of the sector by various forces which they said have been working to their disadvantage.
They called on the government to free the sector from the forces and work towards improving their fortunes so that farming does not remain a vicious cycle of poor returns and endless pain.
Despite tea being sold in dollars to buyers, they observed, they have not been receiving their pay according to the current exchange rates.
“The government has been committed to ensuring that our earnings increase but the sad thing is, we continue to get so little that cannot meet all our obligations. We still have so many brokers and cartels who dictate prices,” one farmer noted. “It’s shocking that we have been getting a raw deal in the tea earnings as high proceeds of tea sale has been ending up in the pockets of cartels,” he added.
Ndarugo Zone director Gabriel Kagombe who also doubles as the area MP claimed that cartels, some of whom do not have a single tea bush in their farms, have infiltrated the market and are dipping their hands in the coffers of farmers’ earnings.
Kagombe, who is also a farmer, noted that the bonuses paid to farmers in October were from the tea that was sold in March when the shilling was trading at Sh130 against the dollar but received their pay at a time when the shilling hit Sh153 against the dollar.
Speaking at Theta Tea Factory during the factory’s Annual General Meeting, he argued that farmers across the country lost about Sh23 which he claimed ended up in the pockets of a few individuals running the tea markets.
“We have been having a high competition for dollars in Kenya, especially from importers.
Being the top foreign income earner for Kenya, tea has been generating lots of dollars for the importers at the expense of struggling farmers. Our poor people are losing millions of money paid as commission to agents who decide when to sell the dollars earned from the sale of tea,” Kagombe said.
Competitive prices
Former KTDA chairman David Ichoho (pictured) shared similar sentiments, stating that there must be a maximum plan to ensure factories have enough money to pay their farmers competitive prices, service their debts and run affairs of the factories. He noted that the tea sub-sector is also in the dollar competition as procurement of equipment, including Orthodox tea machines, fertilizer among others is done using dollars.
“Tea is one of the four sectors that generate foreign income for our country and therefore we must implement decisions that benefit the farmers. It is also sad to see that we now have creeping back of tea hawking in Kiambu.
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