The Government is revitalising the tea industry by introducing a levy to provide a sustainable funding model to promote competitiveness of the Kenyan leaf in the export market.
In a press statement the Tea Board of Kenya says the levy would facilitate key programmes in the sector including marketing, promotion, research and infrastructure development and also ensure that regulatory frameworks in the industry are strengthened.
The statement signed by the Board’s’ Chief Executive Officer, Willy Mutai, said the reforms were to address challenges facing the industry by enhancing better returns to tea farmers in line with the Bottom Up economic Transformation Agenda [BETA].
He said the new tax under the tea levy regulation 2026 was arrived at after an extensive stakeholder and public participation drive stretching for four years from the year 2021 to 2025 as envisaged under the constitution and statutory instrument Act of 2013.
“The regulation is in accordance with section 53(50) of the Tea Act which provides that the tea levy shall be applied on income and price stabilisation of tea growers 50 percent, research at 20 percent while infrastructure development and regulation each get 15 percent, respectively,” the statement read in part.
He said the regulation will now impose a levy at the rate of 0.8 percent of the auction value or custom value for direct sales payable at the point of exports while tea imports will attract a 100 percent import tax.
Mutai said the new levy, translating to approximately Sh. 2.28 per Kilogramme of made tea was comparatively lower than other tea-exporting countries including India, Bangadesh and Sri Lanka whose rates went as high as 5 percent.
He said the levy was critical in funding marketing development strategies to open up emerging markets in countries like Russia, China, West Africa, Asia and North America.
Mutai says the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development was tasked with the constitution of a multi-stakeholder committee to spearhead the marketing strategy to recapture the dominance of the tea re exporting countries by embarking on value-added initiatives.
‘Supporting value addition aimed at reducing overreliance on bulk export and increasing proportion packaged branded and speciality tea exports from Kenya,’ the presser read.
Mutai said other plans include resuscitation of research and strengthening regulatory framework to enhance the quality of tea and clamp down on Greenleaf malpractices, including counterfeiting of premium tea.
However, following the commencement of the tea levy regulation 2026 on the 1st of May, Mutai says the board received various requests from tea exporters for exemption of teas purchased at the auction or forward contract signed before 30th April 2026.
He confirmed that the board was working on modalities to refund levies paid by tea buyers in respect of those purchases running from 1st January to the 30th of April this year adding that a similar exemption was applicable to dealers with direct sales contracts during the said period.
by Wangari Ndirangu
