24 October 2008
Nairobi — Faced with rising discontent among its producers over dwindled tea earnings, the Kenya Tea Development Agency is planning to open a marketing office in the Middle East.
The move is the latest attempt by the small-scale tea industry management to make case of its relevancy amid radical reforms that have been proposed by Agriculture minister William Ruto that include its restructuring.
Among the criticism, the firm has been facing from the producers is failure to satisfactorily market its tea locally and internationally.
Mr Peter Kanyago, a member of the agency's board of directors, says the firm will open an office in Dubai before the end of the year, mainly to tap the potential of the Middle East, which with adjacent regions, account for approximately 25 percent of global tea imports. Interviews for a manager of the office were done last week.
Dubai is already cutting out a niche as an important regional centre for value addition of tea and its transshipment, and the KTDA cannot therefore afford to ignore it.
"These people are offering very good terms," a senior KTDA manager said.
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