On a chilly Friday morning, small-scale tea grower Joseph Chirchir joined his two farmhands in plucking green leaves at his three-acre farm in Kabianga, Kericho County.
By 10am, they gathered under a shed at the corner of the farm to sort the leaves, ensuring they adhered to the industry standard of two leaves and a bud.
Out of the 120 kilogrammes plucked, Chirchir divided the fresh farm produce into two gunny bags of 60 kilogrammes each.
One would be supplied to the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA)-managed Momul Tea Factory, with proceeds expected at the end of the month.
The second bag would be sold to hawkers for instant cash at Sh27 per kilogramme, providing immediate income to meet household needs.
“Businessmen buying green leaf for cash have provided a fallback for farmers who, due to financial pressures, cannot wait until the end of the month to receive their pay from KTDA-managed factories,” Chirchir explains to Nation.Africa.
His experience reflects a broader trend in tea-growing regions where farmers supplement their income through alternative sales.
In Kimuchul village in neighbouring Bomet County, Joyce Koech noted that hawkers have become an integral part of the tea supply chain.
Workers plucking green tea leaves at an estate owned by the the Kipsigis Highlands Multipurpose Cooperative Society in Chepchabas, Bomet county on March 4, 2025. The Tea Board of Kenya has banned hawking of green leaf which has been thriving in tea growing belts in the country, in order to deal with issues of quality production at the farm and in factories.
Photo credit: Vitalis Kimutai | Nation Media Group
“Whereas the KTDA trucks are collecting green leaves from designated buying centres, the hawkers are collecting the produce from the farms and on the highways using pickups and motorcycles before delivering it to various factories,” Ms Koech said.
The government has, however, started a crackdown against the hawkers in the tea growing belts to raise the quality of tea produced in the country.
Hawkers are considered to be the main cause of the low quality of green leaf supplied to factories as they are concerned with quantity rather than quality of the produce.
In a letter dated March 18, 2025, to all tea factories and processors, small-holder tea factories, large-scale/ plantation tea factories, and independent tea factories, the Tea Board of Kenya (TBK) issued a ban on hawking of green leaves in the country as part of the ongoing reforms in the industry.
TBK CEO Willy Mutai noted that the tea industry has undertaken fundamental reforms to streamline the sector towards sustainability and profitability.
Mr Willy Mutai (left) the Tea Board of Kenya Chief Executive Officer and Dr Paul Ronoh, the Principal Secretary for Agriculture, confer during a meeting with farmers at Tirgaga tea factory in Bomet county on August 24, 2024.
Photo credit: Vitalis Kimutai | Nation Media Group
Mr Mutai said that the reforms were designed to streamline the sector, ensuring long-term profitability.
Kenya exports its tea to Japan, Britain, Poland, Pakistan, Russia, Egypt, Sudan, Morocco, Iran, South Africa, Australia, Ghana, and Nigeria, among other countries.
Mr Mutai noted that the new Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture and Livestock Development Mutahi Kagwe has issued a directive banning the hawking of green leaves in tea growing belts.
The circular copied to Principal Secretary for Agriculture Kipronoh Ronoh, Tea Board of Kenya Chairman Ndung’u Gathinji, and Mr Kagwe was directed at the tea factories, producers, green leaf brokers, and errant tea growers.
“All tea factories/producers are hereby cautioned against engaging in green leaf hawking, collection of the leaf along the roadside where there are no leaf collection centres, using green-leaf brokers, and using leaf-collection vehicles that are not registered with the board,” Mr Mutai stated in the circular.
Dr Ronoh recently said that the government was tightening the bolts on surveillance to ensure high standards are maintained in the entire green-leaf production line.
“The government will crack down on factories that receive low-quality produce from hawkers who, in the first place, are not recognised in the industry chain,” Dr Ronoh said.
However, industry players have said it would be difficult to reinforce the issue of hawkers as it is impossible to tell which has been sold directly to the dealers and which is being supplied by the individual farmers.
“Does the TBK have the capacity to police the industry in such a manner that they can identify the genuine farmers and hawkers?” asked Philiph Ngeno, a former director of the Kenya Tea Development Agency, Tegat/Chemaner zone.
Mr Ngeno said the TBK should simply crack the whip on factories that accept low-quality green leaf so as to make headway in the push for high-quality products offloaded to the markets.
“In the first instance, it is the Tea Board of Kenya that has issued the licenses to the private factories, which are the main cause of the low-quality production as in a bid to maximise profits, they accept bulk leaf without adherence to set standards,” Mr Ngeno said.
Mr Tom Oganda, a tea grower in Nyamira County said it would be a tall order for the board to implement the hawking order due to the nature of the collection and delivery of the green leaf to factories.
“Even with the support of the police and administrators, it would not be practical for TBK to control the supply of the produce to factories. The only practical thing to do is to have standard control officers in factories and ensure the produce sticks to the two leaves and a bud required,” Mr Oganda said.
Due to corruption, hawkers who do not have tea in their farms have been given licenses to supply the produce to KTDA and privately owned factories.
They purchase produce from farms and supply it as their own to the factories. In return, the hawkers target a cash windfall when bonuses are declared annually by KTDA as a second payment.
Even though the hawkers provide instant cash for the farmers, the growers lose out on annual bonuses provided by KTDA for their supplies.
More than 680,000 small-scale tea growers supply their produce to the 54 Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) managed factories in the country, making the agency the biggest player in the industry.
The industry set standards are that farmers harvest two leaves and a bud for processing to Cut, Tear, and Curl (CTC) tea which Kenya is known as one of the highest global producers.
The green leaf that is rejected in KTDA buying centres is mainly sold to hawkers who supply it to private factories in the region.
Most of the private factories in the country fall under Bomet, Kericho, Narok, Nakuru, Nandi, Elgeyo Marakwet, Nyamira, and Kisii counties under the zone (West of Rift), while a few are in the East of Rift (Mount Kenya region).
Mr Chege Kirundi, the new KTDA board chairman has said that farmers should make profits from their investments.
“My mantra is - farmers first. KTDA is a farmers’ organisation and it should serve them well. They should make profits from their investments. That is what will drive our agenda.
“The farmer should be at the centre of the operations on the Environment Social and Governance (ESG) pillars of the planet. It is people and profits,” Mr Kirundi said.
Small-scale tea growers were paid a whooping Sh 89.29 billion by KTDA for the supply of green leaves last year (for the year ended June 30, 2024).
It marked an increase of Sh 21.5 billion as compared to Sh 67.7 billion which they received last year.
Eight subsidiaries of the Kenya Tea Development Agency Holdings paid dividends of Sh 1 billion to the 54 KTDA-managed factories.
A total of Sh56.68 billion was paid as a bonus to the growers while 32.61 billion was categorised as a monthly payment for the green leaf supplies.
“The payment marks a 32 percent rise in total earnings while the bonus rose by 28 percent (Sh44.15 billion to Sh56.68 billion in the period under review,” Mr Enos Njeru, the former KTDA board chairman said last year.
Mr Njeru noted that the monthly leaf payments grew by 38 percent in the 2023/2024 financial year from Sh23.55 billion to Sh32.62 billion.
“Green leaf delivered to KTDA factories grew by 23 percent from 1.145 billion kilogrammes in 2023 to 1.412 kilogrammes in 2024,” Mr Njeru revealed.
The average price of a kilo of tea sold at the Mombasa Auction grew by 11 percent from Sh431 to Sh379 – marking the highest average payment for a kilogram of tea sold at the Mombasa Auction.
