Almasi, Siginon sanctioned in Sh600m Thai ivory cargo crackdown

Tea exporting firm Almasi Chai’s trading licence has been revoked by the State and Siginon Freight temporarily barred from handling tea by a lobby following the export of Sh600 million elephant tusks to Thailand last month.

Agriculture principal secretary Sicily Kariuki said the revocation of the licence is one of the stern measures the government has taken to curb export of game trophies and other contraband disguised as tea.

“We have revoked the licence of Almasi Chai Ltd to serve as a warning to other tea exporters who could be taking part in smuggling of contraband,” said Ms Kariuki.

The PS also said the licence of logistics firm Siginon for shipping tea has been suspended by the East African Tea Traders Association (EATTA). Siginon has said it only blended and stuffed the tea on CCTV shared with authorities.

Shipped out

Almasi Chai allegedly exported 511 elephant tusks weighing 3.1 tonnes. The consignment was shipped out of Mombasa on April 6 disguised as 220 kilogrammes of tea destined for the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Ms Kariuki said investigations so far had revealed the contraband was exported through a third company—Potential Quality Supplies—which is not registered to deal with tea, hence contravening the Crops Act, 2013 and the Tea Licensing Registration and Trade Regulations that prohibit transfer of a registration certificate to a third party.

EATTA managing director Edward Mudibo said the organisation had expelled Almasi Chai from the lobby after it was found out that they dealt with a third party to export tea.

“We have stripped them of our membership for contravening the code of conduct that governs EATTA,” Mr Mudibo told the Business Daily Monday.

Mr Mudibo noted that the firm was stopped from trading at the auction last month when their involvement in ivory shipment was revealed.

Ms Kariuki said tea buyers and exporters would undergo thorough scrutiny by the end of this month before the renewal of their registration on July 1.

After the seizure of the contraband, Kenya Revenue Authority said it would henceforth subject Kenya’s Sh100 billion a year tea exports to tough security checks.

Introduce a weighbridge

KRA’s southern region manager George Muia said tea would no longer be treated as low-risk consignment because it had become an easy target for concealing contraband.

EATTA asked the taxman to introduce a weighbridge at the port to help curb contraband disguised as tea.