Business Daily (Nairobi)
Millicent Kamau
26 May 2008
Nairobi — A US tea company has launched its products in the Kenyan market in a pilot project to penetrate the African continent.
Totally Tea's managing director, Mr Mark Clary, said last week that the choice was informed by the established tea drinking culture. "Kenyans consume a lot of imported tea and this presents a perfect opportunity for us to market our products," he said.
Out of the 60 tea products that Totally Tea produces, only five flavours will be launched during the first phase.
The company buys the bulk of its unprocessed tea from Kenya, India and China.
Mr Clary said that the company mainly blends the dried tea with flavours extracted from different dried fruits.
"The quality of tea from these countries is rich,. When blended with fruits it gives a natural taste," says Mr Clary.
Totally Tea deals in tea leaves as opposed to the granular teas common in the international market. Their varieties are slightly chopped and mixed with dried fruits as well as herbs.
The flavours to be launched include black mango, black coconut, pineapple and ginger.
Despite the stiff competition expected from established herbal and iced tea brands, Totally Tea is targeting middle and upper class drinkers who consume those varieties. However, Mr Clary maintains that the product will keep up with competition.
Totally Tea which is based in Wisconsin-USA, was launched in 2006 and is a family owned business producing several tea flavours for the international market.
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Here we go again. An International company buys unprocessed tea from Kenya, processes it and sells back to Kenya. This has to be stopped. And you wonder why Kenya suffers so much economically.
Concerned Kenyan,
Peter Chege