Strategic Tea Quality Improvement Program: The Pride of Kenyan Tea

The Strategic Tea Quality Improvement Program is a five-year strategic program that aims to enhance the quality of tea production and processing to strengthen the competitiveness of the tea industry.

This program started in 2020 and has been implemented with the collaboration of stakeholders, including tea growers, manufacturers, researchers, buyers, and brokers.

The main objectives of the program are: Develop and implement strategies to improve and maintain tea quality throughout the value chain; Enhance tea producers’ and processors’ knowledge and skills in best practices for tea cultivation, harvesting, processing, and quality control; Promote the adoption of modern technologies and innovative practices in tea production and processing; Facilitate research and development activities focused on improving tea quality, including varietal selection, pest and disease management, and processing techniques; Establish and enforce quality standards and regulations for the tea industry; Improve market access and consumer confidence by ensuring consistent high-quality tea products.

The TCC is the first level of activity under the wider Strategic Tea Quality Improvement Program (STQIP) initiated in 2020 to address the declining quality of Kenya tea.

The other components of the Program: are the Tea Industry Awards where outstanding factories identified through the Tea Classes Competition are celebrated and awarded during an all-industry festive event.

The factories identified with low tea quality gaps are placed on the Program component known as the On-site coaching conducted at the factory.

Tea Board of Kenya undertakes an annual blind tasting of teas from Kenyan factories by a panel of professional tea tasters drawn from tea brokers and tea buyers to determine the quality of Kenya tea and rank them based on the evaluation of the tea samples.

PS Agriculture dr. Kipronoh Ronoh sampling tea varieties.

This blind adjudication process known as Tea Classes Competition (TCC), involves sensory evaluation of tea samples which are grouped into three (3) categories: Black CTC Commercial manufacture tea samples called through the brokers in Mombasa from licensed CTC producers; Black CTC Special manufacture tea called directly from licensed CTC producers; and Specialty and orthodox teas of various grades called directly from licensed cottage/ specialty tea producers.

The results of the independent judging of the teas will be used to reward the best-performing factories during the Tea Industry Gala Awards Dinner in the Kenyan Tea Industry Centenary celebrations to be held in November 2024. The program aims to support the selected factories to achieve better tea quality and fetch better prices.

Dr. Muchelule is a Data Governance Consultant.

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