Tea is a major cash crop that is grown in

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

. Kenyan tea has been the leading major foreign exchange earner for the country. Most tea produced in Kenya is

black tea Black tea (also literally translated as red tea from various East Asian languages) is a type of tea that is more tea processing, oxidized than oolong, yellow tea, yellow, white tea, white, and green tea, green teas. Black tea is generally st ...

, with

green tea Green tea is a type of tea made from the leaves and buds of the '' Camellia sinensis'' that have not undergone the withering and oxidation process that creates oolong teas and black teas. Green tea originated in China in the late 1st millenn ...

yellow tea Yellow tea is a particular lightly oxidized tea, either Chinese ''huángchá'' ( zh, t=黃茶, s=黄茶, labels=no) and Korean ''hwangcha'' (). Chinese ''huángchá'' ''Huángchá'' is increasingly rare and expensive. The process for making i ...

white tea White tea may refer to one of several styles of tea which generally feature young or minimally processed leaves of the ''Camellia sinensis'' plant. Currently there is no generally accepted definition of white tea and very little international ...

, and purple tea (a product whose leaves are naturally so colored by inherent anthocyanins) produced on order by major tea producers.

History

Tea was first introduced in

in 1903 by GWL Caine and was planted in present-day

Limuru Limuru is a town in central Kenya. It serves as both a parliamentary constituency and an administrative division. As of 2004, the town's population was approximately 4,800, which significantly increased to 159,314 by the 2019 census. Location Li ...

. Commercialisation of tea started in 1924 by Malcolm Fyers Bell, who was sent out by Brooke Bonds to start the first commercial estates. Since then the nation has become a major producer of black tea. Currently Kenya is ranked third after

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

and

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

in tea exports in the world. Kenyan tea is also one of the top foreign exchange earners, alongside tourism, horticulture, and Kenyan coffee. The task of managing the small-scale holder lies with the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA). Currently the KTDA has 66 tea factories serving over 500,000 small-scale farmers cultivating over 100,000 ha. Of all tea produced in Kenya, KTDA members produce over 60% while the rest is produced by large-scale producers.

Labour

In most tea growing regions labour is manual. Tea plucking machines are currently being used by multinationals. Tea production has been reported to make use of

child labour Child labour is the exploitation of children through any form of work that interferes with their ability to attend regular school, or is mentally, physically, socially and morally harmful. Such exploitation is prohibited by legislation w ...

according to the

U.S. Department of Labor The United States Department of Labor (DOL) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for the administration of federal laws governing occupational safety and health, wage and hour standards, unem ...

's report on the worst forms of child labour in 2013 and more recently according to the Department's ''

List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor The ''List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor'' is an annual publication issued by the United States Government's Bureau of International Labor Affairs at the U.S. Department of Labor. It has been published within the December 2014 ...

''.

Cultivation

Kenya's tea growing regions are endowed with ideal climate; tropical, volcanic red soils; well distributed rainfall ranging between 1200 mm to 1400mm per annum; long sunny days are some of the climatic features of the tea growing regions. The majority of Kenya's tea-growing regions are found in the Kenyan Highlands, on both sides of the

Great Rift Valley The Great Rift Valley () is a series of contiguous geographic depressions, approximately 6,000 or in total length, the definition varying between sources, that runs from the southern Turkish Hatay Province in Asia, through the Red Sea, to Moz ...

. One . Tea is planted in an area of over 157,720 hectares, with production of about 345,817 metric tonnes made of tea. Over 325,533 metric tonnes exported. Cultivation is split between two types of system – small rural farms, called smallholdings (or ''shambas'') and large company-run plantations. Vegetative propagation of high-yielding, well-adapted clones. Over 49 varieties so far developed by the Tea Research Foundation of Kenya (TRFK). Fertilizers are regularly added to replenish soil nutrients.

Processing

Much of the tea grown in Kenya is processed using the

crush, tear, curl Crush, tear, curl (sometimes cut, tear, curl) is a method of processing tea leaves into black tea in which the leaves are passed through a series of cylindrical rollers with hundreds of sharp teeth that crush, tear, and curl the tea into small, h ...

method, making it suitable for use in blends popular in most black-tea markets, including India, Britain and North America. CTC tea has a homogeneous taste and a strong generic, bold "tea" flavor and is the base of most Indian tea blends as well as a significant portion of breakfast teas. Higher-quality Kenyan teas are processed using traditional methods (e.g. picking of the tender leaves and bud cyclically, these being allowed to dry and oxidize), and are often highly sought after "single origin" whole-leaf teas. Multinational companies increasingly use automation to pluck the green leaves (4 kilos of green leaves produce 1 kilo of "made tea"), though smaller plantation estates may still pluck by hand. Kenyan teas are regularly sold in bulk to large blending houses to be added to black breakfast tea blends.

Product

When processing the tea is graded into different grades. the major grades are: Leaves and granules * BP1: Broken Pekoe 1 forms about 12–14% of the total production. It has the largest size. The liquors are a bit light in body but with encouraging flavouring characteristics * PF1: Pekoe Fanning 1. This is about 58–60% and forms the bulk of the production. It is mahas traces of black tea and large amount of smallish cut fibres often sifted out of the primary grades. F1 forms about 3–4% of the production and quite useful in tea bags due to its quick brewing, strong flavour and good colour. Fine particles * PD: Pekoe Dust. It forms 10–12% of the production, often black and finer than the PF1 often with thick liquors and aroma. * ''Dust'': Made up of tiny bits of broken leaf often used to brew strong tea quickly and popular for the

tea bags A tea bag (or teabag) is a small, porous, sealed bag or packet typically containing tea leaves (''Camellia sinensis'') or the leaves of other herbs, which is immersed in water to steep and make an infusion. Originally used only for making tea ...

. * ''Dust1'': This is made up of the smallest particles and form about 4–6% of the total production.

Production

Production statistics in 2013: Domestic supply = Production + Import – Export + Stock Variation In 2018, Kenya was the world's largest exporter and producer of

, with a total export value of US$1,355,994,000 in packings over 3 kilograms.

International prices

Tea from Kenya and other African countries is sold through
now automated system

public auction A government auction or a public auction is an auction held on behalf of a government in which the property to be auctioned is either property owned by the government or property which is sold under the authority of a court of law or a governmen ...

Mombasa Mombasa ( ; ) is a coastal city in southeastern Kenya along the Indian Ocean. It was the first capital of British East Africa, before Nairobi was elevated to capital status in 1907. It now serves as the capital of Mombasa County. The town is ...

. As of September 2023, the auction price of tea in Kenya stabilized at 2.25 U.S. dollars per kilogram.

Institution and research

Tea in Kenya is controlled by different institutes and government bodies. They are: * Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries: bear responsibility to the government * Agriculture Fisheries and Food Authority -Tea Directorate: to manage tea industry in

on behalf of the Government * Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA): To manage small-scale trades * East Africa Tea Trade Association (EATTA): to facilitate tea trade in East Africa and southern Africa. * Tea Research Foundation of Kenya (TRFK): to facilitate tea research in Kenya In 2011 the TBK and

Egerton University Egerton University is a public university in Kenya. It is the oldest institution of higher education in Kenya. Location The main campus of the university is located in Njoro, a small community approximately , southwest of the town of Nakuru. T ...

entered into a partnership to strengthen tea industry in Kenya. They drafted a curriculum, that will offer undergraduate,

post graduate Postgraduate education, graduate education, or graduate school consists of academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications usually pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachelor' ...

, certificates and diplomas in tea production & marketing and tea processing technology & management.

References

External links

Kenya Tea development Agency

Tea Board of Kenya

Tea Research Foundation of Kenya

Kenyan tea in Canada
{{Africa topic, Tea production in Agriculture in Kenya