KTDA mulls building w*rehouses near Nairobi ICD to leverage rail services
Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) is considering constructing warehouses next to the Nairobi Inland Container Depot to leverage the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) in transporting tea to overseas markets.
This, KTDA Management Services Managing director Alfred Njagi said is after realising that a number of tea buyers and packers are increasingly preferring to pack tea into containers for export at source (factory) and bypass the Mombasa tea auction for the markets.
He said ex-factory containerisation continues to be an increasingly preferable option for big packers that have direct sales arrangements with factories.
“Apart from being a more efficient method of transporting tea by cutting down on delays occasioned by road transport and warehousing, it has added advantages in that tea factories do not incur auction expenses such as warehouse storage and brokerage costs,” said Njagi.
Tea Auction
Njagi said since May 2019, nine KTDA tea factories have transported over two million kilogrammes of tea worth over Sh600 million directly to the market using the SGR, bypassing Mombasa Tea Auction hence their consideration to construct a warehouse next to the inland depot.
This, he said, presents an opportunity for factories to leverage SGR framework to reduce costs, while getting payments processed faster for their sales.
For customers, the process will ensure quality of product is maintained due to the shorter time it takes to reach them even as it guarantees product safety due to lower multi-handling of the tea.
