Kenya Tea development Agency (KTDA) has started processing the bonus money announced last month for the 2016/2017 financial year.This means tea farmers affiliated to KTDA will in less than two weeks start receiving Sh42 billion final payment. This is lower by Sh2 billion when compared with a record high of Sh44 billion that producers earned last year.KTDA head of corporate communication Ndiga Kithae has confirmed the payment."We have always been paying farmers at the end of October and this has been the tradition every year," Kithae was quoted by the Business Daily on Thursday. According to Business Daily industry report from KTDA indicates that farmers will get 76 percent of the Sh78 billion turnover realised in the current financial year, up from 75 percent in 2016.Small-scale farmers earnings dropped by four per cent from Sh84 billion last year to Sh78 billion this year which is attributed to ravaging drought that cut production by 20 percent.The record earnings to growers 2015/2016 financial year was attributed to increased sales that stood at 272 million kilogrammes compared with 233 million kilos registered in the current financial year, says the paper.Tea production for 2017 is expected to drop by 11 percent due to the effects of continuing drought in production that has cut volumes coming in from the farms.

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