The President said
Saying
Speaking at State House Nairobi when he met
"We are the largest tea producer in the world, yet we don't have a Kenyan tea brand and, therefore, our product gets lower prices than countries that produce less than we do," said
He told the leaders of tea factories to set up common user facilities and told them he expects the country to be exporting at least 60 per cent of processed and branded tea in between three and five years.
"Last year, we did away with taxes on packaging materials for tea. We, therefore, have to expand common user facilities and add value to our tea,"
He added: "We cannot continue exporting our tea in sacks. In three years, we must export 60 per cent of value-added and branded tea. KTDA and the Tea Board of
Responding to issues raised by the leaders, the President promised to operationalise the
He also said the
He said KTDA cannot continue to charge farmers a management fee of 2.5 per cent and directed that it be reduced to 1.5 per cent.
"We will meet here in three months to assess the progress in resolving all the issues you have raised," he told the tea leaders.
The Head of State asked KTDA to hold free and fair elections, and emphasised that the government has no preferred candidates.
Present at the meeting were Senate Majority Leader
Distributed by
.
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