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{
    "id": 392087,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/392087/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 100,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Wamatangi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 646,
        "legal_name": "Paul Kimani Wamatangi",
        "slug": "paul-kimani-wamatangi"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Madam Temporary Speaker. I guess the issue of coffee is a good one and everybody is enjoying the contribution. Madam Temporary Speaker, the other very important cash crop that this country has been growing is tea. But the story about tea farming is slightly different because the tea industry has registered substantial growth. But it is important to note a few facts. One, that the coffee industry in Kenya is mainly divided into two sectors; the small-scale farmers and the integrated multi-nationals who have their own plantations and factories for processing their coffee. Since Independence, the small holders in this sector have exhibited a steady growth of about 60 per cent of the national tea production, which accounts for about 65 per cent of all the areas that have harvested tea in this country. Madam Temporary Speaker, the strongly integrated plantation process is such that the multi-nationals process all their tea in about 39 factories. The CPDA Law of 2007 established the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA), which was expressly supposed to co-ordinate, process, and market the entire small scale holders’ tea production. At that time, the KTDA was the country’s biggest private company with over 15,000 employees and about 63 factories. Kenyan tea is sold through the Mombasa Tea Auction, which is the second biggest tea auction in the world, and it is operated by the East African Tea Traders Association. During the recent years, the industry has been facing several challenges that can be summarized as follows: Our tea farmers have been highly dependent on a few export markets; there have been low yields to the small scale-farmers because of the high cost of production and lack of credit facilities, low participation of the small-scale holders in the upper segment of the value chain and a deficient Government and management by the KTDA, which also attracts cess and levies which are paid by farmers. There has been a constant lack of innovation, research and extension of services to the small-scale farmers. Lastly, a deficient transportation infrastructure together with unreliable high cost of energy and supply are the other challenges that the Kenyan tea sector faces. As I wind up, Madam Temporary Speaker, it is important to note from some of the facts that I have presented that, in general, the Kenyan tea sector performance has been lower than that of the World’s Top Exporters (WTE). While average production in tea areas harvested under the WTE increased to 24 per cent and 18 per cent respectively between 2001 and 2010, the production only increased by 14 per cent in the harvested areas and 18 per cent respectively, implying that we are behind the other tea growing countries. Kenya does not have its own internal market so as to rely on the sale of its The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}