The Kenya Tea Development Agency Limited (KTDA) is in the final stages of setting up Africa’s first Japanese specialty green tea production factory as part of its long-term product diversification strategy.
KTDA Management Services Managing Director, Alfred Njagi, said the project is a collaborative effort between the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA), and KTDA, whose success will be rolled out to other factories.
The factory will be located at the organization’s Kangaita Tea Farm in Kirinyaga County and will be used to pilot the processing of the specialized Japanese Sencha Green Tea which on average fetches a higher price, in the market than traditional black CTC tea.
Diversifying products
“This project is a pilot plant to manufacture Japanese Green Tea. With Kenya being the third-largest producer of tea in the world, KTDA is in the process of diversifying the kind of products we are putting in the market; having started with Orthodox tea and now green tea. This particular plant will process a special type of green tea called Sencha. When successful, this project will be rolled out to the smallholder tea factories,” said Mr Alfred Njagi.
The project will cost Sh 330million. A tune of Sh 150million funding was received from JICA while the balance will come from KTDA Holdings. Part of the project will involve mechanized green leaf plucking as the production of Japanese Sencha Green Tea demands a certain type of leaf quality to go through the processing plant. KTDA has been testing mechanized plucking at the farm, by ensuring tea bushes are prepared for the process when production starts next year.
Commenting on this, Jared Onduso, Assistant Manager in charge of tea harvesting at the farm, said: “One of the requirements of processing Japanese Sencha Green Tea is that it should be delivered to the factory within one hour of plucking; it is, therefore, necessary for us to use mechanized plucking to attain the right quality of green leaf and have it delivered to the factory within the shortest time possible. The machine is efficient in that we can get the required amount of green leaf as per the processing requirement of the factory.”
KTDA projects the factory to be operational in the second quarter of 2021, with the installation of production lines by Japanese engineers having been delayed owing to the travel disruptions that were occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic.
