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{
    "id": 220087,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/220087/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 193,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Kirwa",
    "speaker_title": "The Minister for Agriculture",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 311,
        "legal_name": "Kipruto Rono Kirwa",
        "slug": "kipruto-kirwa"
    },
    "content": " Mr. Speaker, Sir, I wish to issue this Ministerial Statement. Mr. Speaker, Sir, on the 2nd May, 2007 the hon. Member for Kitutu Masaba, Mr. Mwancha, demanded a Ministerial Statement on the Tea Development Agency, Lipton Tea Agreement. I wish to state as follows:- (i) Indeed, Lipton is subsidiary of Unilever which is both a tea producer in the country as Brooke Bond Tea and a buyer as Lipton. (ii) No tea marketing agency agreement exists between the two organizations, that is Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) and Lipton. What does exist is the tea purchasing agreement between them which is the standard purchasing agreement that Lipton enters with all its tea suppliers all over the world. (iii) Lipton purchases tea from many other sources including auction centres in the world. (iv) Lipton buys KTDA tea just like any other buyer and there is no preferential treatment that is accorded to them and still competes to purchase the same tea in the Mombasa auction alongside other buyers. (v) The purchasing agreement is a renewal of an earlier agreement signed in the year 2003 1578 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES May 23, 2007 that expired in December last year, during which time the tea annual average unit price of tea increased from Kshs125 in 2003 to Kshs151 per kilogramme in 2006. (vi) The nature of the agreement is that it defines the terms and conditions under which both parties conduct business with each other when mutually beneficial to both parties. The agreement neither binds KTDA to sell to Lipton Limited nor Lipton Limited to purchase tea from KTDA. (vii) The agreement did not involve any monetary transaction. (viii) Lipton has not been given monopoly to buy KTDA tea as it is not the largest tea buyer. It buys only 27 per cent of tea at the auction. At the auction, tea is available to any buyer who bids highest. (ix) Contrary to the aforesaid, Lipton is not the largest direct buyer of KTDA tea as it only buys 3.46 per cent compared to the largest sale/buyer under the arrangement called Habitullah/Habibulah, the Russian company which buys 20.8 per cent of the direct sales on this arrangement. (x) KTDA has taken several initiatives on tea value addition to ensure that all the tea does not lose identity in the world market. This includes product diversification, blending, branding, marketing and manufacture of ready-made tea. (xi) In the medium term, KTDA-Lipton Association is beneficial to the small-scale farmers and the countries economy as value addition efforts are being nurtured to provide sustainable solutions and development of the tea industry in the country and ensure conservation of the Kenyan name in the marketed tea world-wide."
}