The Kenya Embassy in China has begun engaging importers and key stakeholders in the country to enhance access of Kenyan tea into Chinese massive market.
The embassy on Wednesday said its efforts seek to provide a deeper understanding of cultural tendencies and more insights about Chinese preferences in bid to increase exports to the Asian nation.
“The acquired knowledge shall allow new players in Kenya, especially the young and upcoming entrepreneurs, to engage and foster increased private sector partnerships with relevant Chinese entities,” the Embassy said on X, formally Twitter.
Deputy Head of Mission Lynette Mwende-Ndile noted that tea is one of Kenya’s most important cash crop and a major export that is highly appreciated by the Chinese, who love their black tea.
“I confirmed this during my trip to Fuzhou City. The tea tasting exposed us to the value addition e.g locally produced iced teas and the production of different blends. According to tea statistics from the Tea Board of Kenya, the China market is increasingly absorbing most of our CTC [crush, tear, curl] tealeaves, and data shows they favour orthodox tealeaves,” Ambassador Mwende said on Thursday.
There are six classes of tea: black tea, green tea, purple tea, yellow tea, oolong tea and puer tea. Kenya predominantly produces black CTC tea (almost 99 per cent black tea).
According to 2021 tea statistics as per Tea Board of Kenya, tea production in Kenya for the CTC tea was 533 million kg and 4.2 million kg for orthodox teas.
China market absorbed about one per cent of this and about 5.1 million kg was exported to China with a value of Sh1.2 billion.
According to the Tea Industry Committee of the China Association for the Promotion of International Agricultural Cooperation, Kenya exported 1.4 million kg of tea to China in 2022.
Mwende added that the Kenyan Embassy is thus engaging the importers to understand their preferences and demands to ensure Kenyan players are adequately informed for better alignment during their tea production and marketing.
At the same time, Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, who is leading coffee and tea reforms, presided over the release of the Tea Sector Performance Report, 2023 in Nairobi on Thursday.
During the launch, the Deputy President said fortunes in the tea sub-sector are looking up because of the key legal and policy reforms the government is implementing in the industry.
“In one year since we rolled out the reforms, production has shot up and last year, we exported 523 million Kgs of tea which was a remarkable increase from 450 million Kgs in 2022. Owing to the higher production, tea earnings rose to Sh180 billion last year up from Sh138 billion in 2022,” Gachagua said.
The Ruto Administration, he said, remains committed to pushing for more earnings because the sub-sector has the potential to realise more income to Kenya farmers.
“We appreciate the efforts of the Tea Board of Kenya and other industry players for their commitment and cooperation as we streamline the sector,” he said.
The tea reforms were espoused in law through Crops (Tea Industry) Regulations 2020 and Tea Act, 2020, although some of its provisions have been challenged in court, frustrating the reforms, according to the DP.
Through the Act, the government set the minimum price – also known as reserve price – for Kenyan tea at the Mombasa tea auction at $2.43 (Sh275 at the time) per kg.
ECONOMIC DIPLOMACY
During the dispatch of the last group of diplomats in December last year, DP Gachagua said the Kenya Kwanza Administration is re-engineering Kenya’s diplomatic priorities and architecture to focus more on commercial diplomacy as opposed to “the traditional way of diplomacy”.
“You must be aggressive as Kenya’s produce is highly sought. I have travelled to many places and our presence is not there and it is you at the embassy who will do this job. To market our coffee, tea, milk, meat, avocado and miraa and get our space in the world market,” the DP added.
He said the envoys’ performance will be pegged on the increase volume of trade between Kenya and their host states, which will determine their continued stay abroad.
“Wherever you go in the first year, go and study the volume of our exports to that country and within an year, there must be a shift … If you go there and you don’t increase volume of trade, you have no business being there at all. There must be a positive achievement after you report. You must be able to account for you being there – opening markets, enlarging the existing ones,” DP Gachagua said.
