The government's decision is aimed at cutting off unscrupulous middlemen who have continued to eat into the farmers' profits.

 

Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Willy Bett said what tea producers currently endure at the Mombasa port is "exploitative and abusive".

 

He said the government would not let the unscrupulous middlemen have their way.

 

"The government has introduced several new measures to stamp out the exploitation of tea farmers and tea companies and now counties have been allowed to export the tea directly into the world market and seek those buyers who would buy it at high prices," the minister told farmers on Sunday at Kaptel SDA Church, Nandi County, where he commissioned the growing of avocados.

 

He said for many years, tea farmers have suffered at the hands of brokers and greedy traders who made more money than what producers earned.

 

Mr Bett told farmers that the government would not allow the tea industry to collapse.

 

"The tea industry generates billions of shillings annually towards boosting the Kenyan economy and action has already been taken to streamline the tea industry so that the millions of Kenyans, who rely on the sector for income, don't suffer," he said.

 

Some farmers in western Kenya have threatened to quit tea farming and venture into alternative income generating means, including commercial tree farming saying falling prices and exploitation by middlemen had frustrated them.

 

Others in Nandi County led by a director of the Siret Tea Company, Mr Joseph Manjoy Lagat, warned that unless the government removes the one per cent levy on the produce, among other taxes, farmers from other East and Central Africa countries still stood to earn more.

 

"International buyers are shunning Kenyan tea because of too many taxes. These should be done away with as they consume huge amounts of farmers' profits," he said.

 

Mr Bett said several other new measures, which would streamline the tea industry, would be announced in June and implored farmers not to abandon tea farming.

Source : allafrica.com