Farmers from Kamuchege Tea Factory in Gatundu want the government to get rid of private tea factories from the area for allegedly contributing to wanton theft of green tea leaves.
Speaking on Wednesday at Kamuchege Tea Factory, chairman Maina Kamau said the rising number of brokers from multinational tea companies has led to massive theft of tea leaves from factories.
"We want the government to ban hawking of green tea leaves as it has led to rampant theft of green tea leaves by brokers at buying centres leading to farmers incurring losses," said Kamau.
Kiambu Kenya Tea Development Agency Holdings (KTDA) chairman Mukora Kimani said that despite challenges in the world market which affected tea prices, KTDA was always able to compensate the farmers with bonus besides offering farmers inputs like fertiliser and tea picking garments at subsidised rates.
"These rogue buyers only offer a slightly higher price per unit kilo than us and that is all, no bonus no fertiliser. Where do they expect the farmers to get loans from without bonuses?" he asked.
The liberalisation in the tea sector in the 1990s ended the monopoly of the then Kenya Tea Development Authority and transformed it to an agency managing state-owned tea factories as farmers’ public limited companies.
The move triggered the mushrooming of private factories and opened the doors to multinational factories to directly buy the produce from farmers in competition with KTDA.