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Farmers in Meru, Kenya Oppose Arrival of Tea Plucking Machines

Tea is one of the main contributors to Kenyan economy. Kenya is known for her reddish, strong CTC teas suitable for milk tea. By the way, as allAfrica had reported, Tea farmers in Meru County, Kenya have opposed the introduction of plucking machines, saying machines will affect badly on the quality of green leaf and lead to reduced earnings.

A group of small scale farmers mentioned that tea plucking using machines will reduce their earnings since the leaf would not be of the required standard and would thus rob them of the quality they have enjoyed for many years. Mr. Gideon Mutwiri, a tea grower from Imenti South, mentioned that for years, Imenti Tea Factory has been leading in the quality of tea sold at the Mombasa auction, but is concerned that the use of machines would bring down the quality. “The machine is cost effective since one gadget does the work of about 20 people but for the small scale farmers, they will be to our disadvantage,” Gideon mentioned.

Image Credit: Facts East Africa

He further mentioned that small scale growers work with their immediate families will be hardest hit because with low volumes and lower quality, their earnings will be meagre.

“Estate farmers are the ones who will use the machines but we deliver leaf to the same factory which will affect our earnings,” he added.

Tea pluckers have also been gripped by panic following reports that the gadgets are on the way.

Mr. Joshua Nyakaki, a tea picker, said he could not imagine surviving without his job. “I came to Meru after the machines were introduced in Kericho where I was working. Now they are following me here. I don’t know where to go next,” Joshua mentioned.

However, some of them are upbeat, saying they plan to buy their own machines and take the competition “head on”.

“We will not take it lying down. We have organised ourselves in a group and plan to buy one the moment they are introduced,” said Mr. John Kinoti, one of the tea pluckers.

He said in a group of six, they would work in shifts since after plucking, there is also a need to sort the leaves at the collection centre.

“This machine is not perfect because factories have insisted on quality and demand that green leaf must first be sorted to ensure it is only a bud and two leaves that go into processing yet the machine plucks more leaves. We are the ones to do the sorting so I think we will still retain our jobs,” he said.

Payment to each factory for made tea sold at the Mombasa auction is based on quality, with those that produce higher grades fetching attractive prices.

There are several companies which have descended in the region, carrying out demonstrations on farms on how to use the plucking machines.

View Point

Harvesting is taken place through out the year in tea plantations in tropical nations like Kenya, Sri Lanka (Ceylon), South India, Indonesia etc. Tea flushes at different stages / generations can be seen in tropical tea fields. Therefore, plucking operation has to be selective. But in sub-tropical / temperate countries, the flush emerges at once during the spring (Late March / Early April) after few months of dormant period during the winter. First and second flushes are generally higher in quality, so these spring flushes are normally plucked by hand. When it comes to summer and autumn flushes, machines can be used to pluck since there is only one shoot generation on the field. Also the quality is not a major concern for later flushes.

But due to labour scarcity, even tropical nations have started to practice machine plucking by adjusting fields accordingly. Machine plucking needs skills. It minimizes the need for labour. Well, this may cut down some employment opportunities. From the other hand, the status of a machine plucker is higher compared to a manual plucker. So machine plucking can be implemented with the aim of retaining labour. Using the term machine “plucking” is also bit debatable, since it’s not a very careful selection. Anyway, let’s see how many farmers in Meru region will adopt to tea plucking machines.

View More Latest Tea News + Articles: http://www.teawithnipun.com/

References

  1. Main Source: https://allafrica.com/stories/202106170055.html

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UK Tea Industry Calls for Climate Targets to Protect Largest Exporter Kenya

Tea was first discovered by the Chinese Emperor Shen Nong in 2737 BC. Tea is also native to Assam region, India. Later on, following Portuguese princess Catherine’s introduction of tea to England in 1660 AD, Brits also started loving this refreshing, stimulating, calming and healthy beverage. Eventually tea became the national beverage in England. There after reputed tea brands like Yorkshire Tea, Twinings, Ahmad Tea, PG Tips, Clipper Tea, Tea Pigs, Typhoo etc emerged with the aim of providing a good cup of tea to Brits. As preventionweb had reported, A new document from the charity Christian Aid shows that Kenya, where half of UK tea imports are coming from, is facing many climate related impacts like increasing temperatures, erratic rainfall, droughts and new insect infestations.

Image Credit: Facts East Africa

These are forecast to destroy 26.2% of the country’s optimal tea growing areas by 2050.  Areas with medium quality growing conditions are to be cut by 39% in the next thirty years because of climate change.

Being the largest exporter of black tea, the fate of the Kenyan tea sector has a considerable effect on tea drinkers around the world. In 2017, Out of 125,810 tons of tea imported by UK. 62,222 tons came from Kenya, that is more than the rest of the top ten biggest importing countries combined.

Concerns from Leading Tea Brands and Fairtrade Organization

  1. Twinings: “We are aware that climate change is accelerating fast and poses a risk to smallholder tea farmers. As extreme weather and natural disasters continue to affect the sowing and growing of healthy crops, the people who supply the ingredients for our products will become ever more vulnerable.”
  2. PG Tips: Fiachra Moloney, of PG Tips maker Unilever said it was vital that COP26 was a success: “The climate crisis affects people all over the world. In East Africa, where so much of our tea comes from, climate change is putting the livelihoods of the people who grow tea for us at risk. As Unilever, we call on governments to bring forward ambitious climate targets, policies and plans ahead of COP26 that will help us all work together to limit global average temperature rise to 1.5 degrees.”
  3. Tetley: “Water is vital to sustain the future of the tea industry. Tea growing regions rely on the rainy seasons to keep their tea bushes healthy and productive, but it’s evident that seasonal rains are becoming more unpredictable and the impact this has on crop growth is far reaching; not least in loss of income of those employed at a local level on the farms.

Let’s hope that the governments of tropical tea growing nations and the international tea community will assist tea farmers to minimize the effect of climate change. The best solution with in the farm is to make it an agro forest. For example, planters can increase the bio diversity by planting cover crops, green manure crops, inter crops, wind belts, live fences, shade trees and so many other economical varieties other than tea. It creates a unique, pleasant micro-climate within the farm. Agro-forest concept helps to bring down the temperature, increase predators and the quality of product in long term. This concept can be seen to a certain extent in Sri Lanka (Ceylon) and India. But unfortunately not much in Africa. So it’s high time for Africa to consider more on quality rather than volume. The Best example is Satemwa tea estate in Malawi.

View More Latest Tea News + Articles: http://www.teawithnipun.com/

References

  1. Main Source: https://www.preventionweb.net/news/view/77706

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Will Kenya Impose Zero VAT on Tea Packaging Machinery Introduced in 2020 Finance Bill ?

Beautiful African nation, Kenya is well known for it’s coloury CTC teas ideal for milk tea. Recently, they have started to focus more on Pure orthodox teas as well. By the way, as Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture in Kenya Mr. Peter Munya has mentioned, Kenyan government intend to impose ZERO Value Added Tax (VAT) on tea with the purpose of increasing value added tea exports as well as to increase the consumption of locally packed tea. But as Mr Munya pushes for the zero-rating of tea, Treasury must assist his efforts by zero-rating tea packing machinery that was introduced in the 2020 Finance Bill.

Image Credit: mkenyaujerumani.de

Potential packers will need to invest in high-quality packaging machines in order to compete with international brands. Adding 16 per cent to an already expensive machine will only slow down value added tea exports.

Though Kenya is ranked third in global tea production following China and India, Kenya is the leading tea exporter in the world, sadly though, In 2019, Kenya exported slightly below five per cent of teas in value-added form compared to Sri Lanka’s 55 per cent. The difference between the auction and FOB (up to the ship) price of Sri Lanka tea and Kenya tea was USD 1.00 and USD 0.05 respectively.This is due to an unfavourable policy and tax regime, key being accessibility of tea by packers as they have to pay a refundable 16 per cent VAT upfront to access the tea, but that takes years to be refunded.

The Tea Directorate has two categories of traders, buyers and packers. While the buyers can buy tea from the VAT zero-rated auction, packers can only buy theirs from buyers or producers and pay VAT upfront.

So in Kenya, it is better to be a buyer than a packer. But, it is the packer who creates employments, raise foreign exchange earnings and expand nation’s existing markets.

Treasury should also consider waiving the newly introduced one per cent minimum tax for those venturing into value addition.

View More Latest Tea News + Articles: http://www.teawithnipun.com/

References

  1. Main Source: https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/editorial/article/2001401637/zero-rate-vat-on-tea-packaging-machinery#=
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