The newly elected KTDA tea factory directors have been urged to transform the tea industry in the country through visionary leadership.
Agriculture Principal Secretary Paul Ronoh told the directors to immediately embark on the issues at hand which include declining tea quality and dead stock at the Mombasa Tea Auction.
Speaking when he officially opened an induction and corporate governance training for the directors from Region five in Nakuru, Ronoh also highlighted the need to enhance the value addition of the product at the factory level as well as revitalizing the performance of the factories.
About unsold tea at the Mombasa Auction, Ronoh observed that some unscrupulous directors were colluding with brokers to increase dead stock which they would later sell at throw-away prices to the chagrin of small-scale growers.
He said some tea factories in the region have recorded a worrying decline in earnings from tea, increasing stock of unsold tea and declining quality.
The PS added that because tea was one of the most important value chains in the country’s economy, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development has been tasked with the responsibility of implementing Beta programmes to ensure that tea realized its full potential in terms of increased returns.
