Kenya to promote specialty tea in bid to increase earnings
Kenyan government announced plans aimed at encouraging farmers to embrace specialty tea as a means of increasing earnings and conquering new export markets. While commodity-grade black tea accounts for 95% of local production, industry leaders view orthodox and specialty tea types, such as white and purple, as more lucrative to farmers and more differentiating on the world market. The price fetched can be several times higher than commodity-grade teas. Kenya has already identified China, Canada, Europe and North Africa as potential suitors for such high quality teas. The country will now introduce cultivation and processing guidelines for growers in order to increase adoption, which has been lagging in recent years.