Tea sector reforms meant to grow money, says AFA

The Agriculture and Food Authority says tea sector reforms were envisaged to make the industry competitive regionally and globally through reduction of production costs and increased efficiency.

In its cross petition against a case the East African Tea Trade Association (Eatta) has filed at the High Court in Mombasa, AFA says that prior to the current changes, the sector had many laws that made it uncompetitive and bureaucratic.

Eatta’s petition challenges the implementation schedule Mr Peter Munya, the Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture, has published.

The association, which manages Mombasa tea auction, wants a declaration that the Crops (Tea Industry) Regulations Implementation Schedule declared null and void because it was issued in a manner that is inconsistent with provisions of the Constitution and Statutory Instruments Act.

However, AFA argues that there had been a call on the need to improve management and sale of tea in the country to provide better earnings to farmers, which is not attained by the current private enterprises controlled by Eatta and the Kenya Tea Development Agency Holdings.

The status  

The two, AFA argues in its suit papers, “had an opportunity to participate in those reforms, but they chose to preserve the status quo, which was in their favour.”

But “the government was determined to end for the benefit of tea farmers and stakeholders in the tea sub-sector,” AFA states.

It refutes the claim by the petitioner (Eatta) that the Crops (Tea Industry) Regulations 2020 were subjected to public participation.

The reason Eatta is in court is because its recommendations were not accepted, AFA says in its suit documents, seeking to have the petitioner’s case dismissed.

The case will be mention on October 26.

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