Tea Board outlaws green leaf hawking

There is growing concern over illegal hawking of green leaf tea in the country.

Besides interfering with the operations of factories, the practice has been cited as a major challenge in the tea industry.

Consequently, the industry regulator, the Tea Board of Kenya, has launched a crackdown against the practice in six districts in the country’s tea growing zones.

The managing director of the Tea Board of Kenya, Mrs Sicily Kariuki, on Thursday issued a stern warning to the illegal hawkers.

According to Mrs Kariuki, the practice is rampant in the tea growing areas of Nyamira, Kericho, Nandi, Bureti, Bomet and Limuru.

“This practice is being encouraged by middlemen and estate owners who are taking advantage of the green leaf shortage caused by the current dry spell,” she said in a paid advertisement in a section of the press on Thursday.

Also blamed for this trend, she added, is a misguided interpretation of the concept of “free market”.

Many of those who engage in this hawking of green leaf tea do so in the belief that the liberalised market permits it.

But Mrs Kariuki said the traders were flouting laws that were set up to not only to guide industry operations, but also safeguard the capacity of the factories.

This includes the provisions of the Tea (Amendment) Act, 1999 on the supply, sale and delivery of green leaf tea.

Growers are not allowed to sell green leaf to any person other than to the manufacturing factory specified in the tea grower registration certificate.

After registration, tea growers sign a Green Leaf Supply Agreement with the factories.

According to the regulations, a tea grower wishing to change the factory where he delivers green leaf has to inform the respective factories by giving a notice as specified in the Green Leaf Supply Agreement.

In case of an objection to the notice, the Tea Board of Kenya steps in for appropriate action or arbitration.

In the event that  the grower has leased a tea garden, a lease agreement shall be signed between the two, verified by the respective factory and a copy of the agreement shall be submitted to the respective factory before accepting the extra green leaf supply.