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Tea still king, as agricultural sector value grows to Sh1.75 trillion
Tea pickers at a farm in Sotik, Bomet County, in this photo taken on March 11, 2026. The agricultural sector’s value grew to Sh48.4 billion in 2025.
The agricultural sector’s value grew to Sh48.4 billion in 2025, even as farmers produced less cash crops like tea and sugarcane.
While the production of cash crops outweighed a marginal increase in that of staples like maize and rice, farmers recorded an overall Sh16 billion increase in their 2025 earnings. Farmers earned Sh706 billion in 2025, compared to Sh690 billion in the previous year.
Marketed tea was still the leading contributor in the sector’s earnings despite falling to Sh155 billion in 2025. Less production of the green leaf attributed to the Sh23 billion fall from 2024.
The value of the agricultural sector grew to Sh1.75 trillion, recording 2.8 per cent growth in 2025. In the previous year, the sector’s value had grown by 4.3 per cent, with its value hitting Sh1.703 trillion.
Coffee production increased from 49,500 tonnes during the 2023/2024 cropping season to 51,400 tonnes in the 2024/2025 season, accounting for Sh38.9 billion in 2025.
Rice production increased to 303,700 tonnes, on the back of expanded cropped areas to 48,379 hectares across all irrigation schemes in Kenya.
Maize production increased from 44.8 million bags in 2024 to 45.8 million bags in 2025. Similarly, production of potatoes and millet grew by 13.6 per cent and 14.3 per cent to 2.5 million metric tonnes and 800,000 bags in 2025, respectively.
On the other hand, beans production declined from 8.4 million bags in 2024 to 7.4 million bags in 2025.
Wheat took the biggest hit in 2025, as production fell 18.2 per cent to 254,900 tonnes.
“The decline in wheat production can be attributed to reduction in area under crop resulting from farmers shifting to other crops for better prices. The reduction was also associated with seed recycling, bird attacks and land fragmentation,” the 2026 Economic Survey states.
The sector recorded a mixed performance in 2025, characterized by uneven weather conditions and underlying structural factors.
“While favourable long rains supported production in some regions, below average short rains constrained output for rain fed crops, leading to varied outputs in subsectors,” said the report.
While the overall earnings from marketed production of agricultural produce increased from Sh690 billion in 2024 to Sh706 billion in 2025, total crop earnings declined from Sh 457.8 billion in 2024 to Sh 436 billion in 2025.
Major industrial crops such as green tea, sugarcane and pyrethrum recorded significant production dips. Green tea output fell by 7.8 per cent to 2,476.7 thousand tonnes in 2025, while sugarcane production dropped by 24.7 per cent from 9.4 million tonnes to 7.05 million tonnes in 2025 due to lack of mature cane for harvesting.
Dry pyrethrum flowers production fell by 18.2 per cent, to 1.33 tonnes last year, with the KNBS attributing the drop to poor quality planting materials.
Similarly, the production of dry pyrethrum flowers declined by 18.2 per cent to 1,337.0 tonnes during the period under review. The decline was attributed to inadequate and poor quality.
Earnings from the crop decreased from Sh503.4 million in 2024 to Sh354.3 million in 2025.
Export of fresh vegetables also took a hit, closing the year with earnings of Sh21.3 billion despite selling more products than the previous year. KNBS attributes the fall to international markets like the UK and Sweden tightening rules on the use of pesticides in the production process.
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