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{
    "id": 980031,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/980031/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 277,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kiharu, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Ndindi Nyoro",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13370,
        "legal_name": "Samson Ndindi Nyoro",
        "slug": "samson-ndindi-nyoro"
    },
    "content": "One of the elephants in the room is the marketing of our tea. When I mention tea, it is alongside coffee because I come from a region that grows both the two important crops. We have neglected marketing of our tea. We only market some specific types of tea. That calls for diversification of the tea that we sell out there even as we market it. Majority of people in this country, especially farmers and consumers, are only aware of what we call black tea or chai . In Kenya, when tea is mixed with milk, we call it “white tea’, but that is not what it should be referred to. We need to emphasise on diversification of tea. There is orthodox tea which will create another market for our tea, especially in Russia and the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). We should also diversify into green tea. Most of what I am enumerating, especially on green tea does not call for planting of new tea trees, but it calls for value addition in tea processing. The tea that we grow here can produce black tea and green tea. It is a matter of processing and levels of processing. The KTDA has done a lot of injustice to the Kenyan farmer, especially through its unchecked powers. We have a private entity that has grossly diversified into unrelated businesses thus diverting the attention it should give to marketing and improvement of our tea subsector. It has gone to other unrelated sectors. There are no records of some of the entities that are owned by KTDA to show that their proceeds, profits and income get into the pockets of the farmers. KTDA has an insurance brokerage company, they are in real estate and they are also in financial services. They are all using last year’s financial reports of KTDA. I do not see any link of these subsidiary incomes getting into the pockets of our farmers. I have listened to many Members speak and I marvel at the ignorance some of them have shown when it comes to the seriousness with which we should take our tea subsector. In yesteryears, one of the mandates of the Central Bank Governor, being the Chair of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), was to regulate the strength of our local currency. One of the places he would go to in strengthening our shilling used to be the Kenya Planters Cooperative Union (KPCU), the former marketer of our tea. If anything would go wrong with our tea production and export, it would impact other parameters in terms of the strength of our local currency. Tea is our number two foreign exchange earner. It has been overtaken by our human capital that is working out there and bringing remittances from abroad. I am not standing here to say that our human capital is doing well; rather I am standing here to say that we have failed to grow our tea subsector and that is why it has moved two number two as a foreign exchange earner in our county. That calls for us to hold hands and see how we can support our tea subsector. One of the areas that we must look at, as we debate this Bill, is that of cash crops. What can we do to increase income from cash crops? I want to talk about two things, that is, the supply chain and the value chain. In many of the consumables, especially food, something called supply chain is very important, because that is what starts from a raw product heading to what we see on the shelves. And I am referencing what Hon. Kimunya was talking about in terms of other important crops like potatoes and other edible crops. But when you talk about cash crops, especially tea and coffee, something else called value chain overtakes supply chain. Value chain does not start from raw materials to shelves. It starts the other way round: from the consumer and coming back to where you can fetch the raw material, or going backwards. One of the things we must do as a country is to create value for our cash crops. Why do I say so? If I am to talk about tea, Sri Lanka produces 60 per cent of the kind of tea that we produce in this country, but they earn more because of value addition. When you go to coffee, the most expensive coffee in the world is called Kopi Luwak, an iodination coffee whose one kilogramme can fetch up to Ksh120,000. I do not want to go into the details of how this Kopi The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}