East African Tea Trade Association organized a Tea Quality & Processing Workshop on the 14th and 16th October, 2010 in Kericho at the Tea Research Foundation of Kenya.
The workshop was officially opened by the Chairman of the Board of Directors of EATTA - Mr. Nelson Orgut. The participants had been drawn from Kenya, Rwanda, Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda. The facilitator of this training was be Prof. Martin Obanda a renowned Tea scientist with the Tea Research Foundation of Kenya.
The world Tea & Coffee ExchangeSM in conjunction with EATTA conducted a webinar on a practical demostration of an e-auction on Wednesday 21st July 2010. The webinar was conducted with presenters in differents states in America between 4.00 P.M - 6.30 P.M East African Time.
Objectives:
To showcase the functions of e-auction through a practical session where members participate in real-time
Participants: EATTA Members, although the most represented were buyers, brokers and warehousemen.
Presenters: Mike Maigua, Charity and the team from WTCEX in USA
Areas covered
The webinar presentation covered the following areas:-
Members had a chance to try out practically buying teas on an online system, the bidding was alot of fun as participants tried to outbid the other buyers. Members then had a chance to ask the presenters their questions and got clarifications on different functions of the WTCEX system.
Though there were some teething challenges at the start of the webinar, the event was a success and members have been requesting for another presentation as they get to understand how online systems work.
This is a first presentation cum workshop in a series of workshops that will be held by EATTA as part of the Business Re-engineering process towards full automation of the auction process.
To try out the WTCEX system kinldy log on www.wtcex.com and go to trading platform, you will need to register either as a buyer, seller or warehouse for demo purposes. Use your mobile number so that you can get notifications when you bid or complete a transcation.
EATTA in Conjunction with SGS Kenya conducted a three (3) day training on Food safety Management (FSM) ISO-22000 awareness and internal auditor training. The training targeted members in the tea warehouses.
A record 30 participants attended the the training for the three days. Workshop participants were drawn from different warehouses within the tea trade. This marks a major milestone in the quest to have EATTA members achieve ISO certification standards.
The newly appointed Kenyan ambassadors visited the EATTA and the tea trade in mombsa on Tuesday 13th July 2010. The 15 ambassadors who will represent Kenya in various foreign missions visited the EATTA, where they had a meeting with the EATTA management and Board Members.
They later visited the Mombasa Tea Auction to experience first hand the trading at one of the biggest International tea auctions in the world. Later they visited warehouses, and buyer members.
EATTA has been invited by the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture to present its case about the Tea Amendment Bill (2010) populary known as the Kones Bill. EATTA has been invited together with KTDA the only two bodies that have expressed opposition to the Bill and forwarded their petitions to the Clerk of the National Assembly.
The Bills Committe on Agriculture will meet on Monday 28th June 2010 at 2.00 p.m., EATTA delegation will be led by Mr. Brian Ngwiri (Marketing Manager) and the advocay consultants (AGSEC Consultants).
EATTA has several objections to this Bill and will use this case to further the interest of the tea trade.
KRA REVERSES DIRECTIVE ON EXPORT ENTRIES DOCUMENT. The directive from Kenya Revenue Authority requiring export entries to have the container number has been reversed. The Commissioner of Customs Services was in Mombasa last week and she committed that as a permanent solution tea exporters will not be required to fill in the container number when lodging the C17B form. You can start lodging your export entries and if you encounter a problem get in touch with the secretariat.
Kephis have agreed to reduce the inspection charges for teas with multiple custom entries going to one consignee from Kshs. 20,000 to 10,000. For purposes of this levy, multiple custom entries consist of more than one. Whilst it would have been better if the charge was reduced back to the Kshs. 5000, Kephis MD (Dr. Onsando) said that the gazette notice authorizing the increment was first published in 2001 and it has been pending implementation since then. According to the Kephis MD, the increase in the charge was as a result of their cost of operations increasing significantly without commensurate increase in support from the government. This is a matter that EATTA will take up with the government. The Kephis MD requested for an opportunity to meet the tea trade in Mombasa in an open forum to discuss concerns the trade may have with the organisation. EATTA will organise a forum very soon that the Kephis team will come to familiarize themselves with the Mombasa tea auction.
This development is a positive one achieved after alot of consultations and lobbying by EATTA. We strive to continue the advocacy agenda on behalf of the tea trade in eliminating bottlenecks that hinder the smooth running of the trade.
Report of the 19th Session of the IGG on Tea that took place in Delhi, India.
Find out more: http://www.fao.org/docrep/meeting/018/K7503E.pdf
The European Union through Pro-invest has appointed Mr. Phil Mumby as the consultant who will work with EATTA for the Strategy Implementation plan. This is a 7 months project funded by pro-invest whose specific objective is to provide technical assistance to support the tea sector by enhancing EATTA members capacities for value added tea products, marketing, promotion activities and business linkages.
The programme is meant to benefit member countries of the EATTA and improve the position of the African tea in the global market.
Phil Mumby holds a Bsc. Hons Food Science & Agricultural Economics from Reading University UK and has over 30 years experience in the tea industry. He works as an independent consultant in tea issues.
Phil has worked with Ringtons Ltd, Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) where he is the founding Director and its Interim chair. He has also worked with Premier Brands and held various Board positions besides working for Cadbury Typhoo where he began his career as a tea taster, buyer and blender.
Phil visited the EATTA Secretariat on Monday 7th June 2010 and met with the EATTA Management led by the MD Dr. Kipkirui Arap Lang'at and had healthy discussions with the team to get a better understanding on the expectations of the project.
EATTA welcomes Mr. Phil Mumby and wish his all the best and support to ensure the success of this project. We will keep you updated on the developments about this project as they unfold.
EATTA Press release by the New Chairman Mr. Nelson Orgut
East Africa Tea Trade Association 53rd Annual General Meeting
26th March 2010
Welcome to this press briefing. I am the new Chairman of the new company the East Africa Tea Trade Association. I am very proud to have been elected today. We are navigating uncharted territories but with the board that has been constituted today that combines long experience and new energy and vibrancy, we are more than a match for the opportunities and challenges that we will come across.
Last year the tea prices were the best they have in a decade. Tea sold at an average of $ 2.82 per kilo globally. Some 279 million kilograms of tea was sold through the Mombasa tea auction. Of this- Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda sold 97% of the quantities. The auction remains an important medium for the tea trade in Africa. This is a time of renewed optimism for our members. Coupled with this is the birth of the new EATTA.
The secretariat has made important headway in the implementation of the strategic plan. The year was eventful with the appointment of a Managing Director as well as functional heads to operations and marketing. The expectation of the membership is that a fully staffed and empowered secretariat will be better positioned to address the interests of its members. The members have today appointed a board of 13 directors consisting of five producer members – two from Kenya and one each from Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda, three buyers, one member each representing brokers, packers and warehouses and an independent director.
The broad objectives of EATTA include
As part of the resolutions of today our members have adopted the new articles of association recognizing EATTA as a company limited by guarantee to substitute the existing ones for EATTA as a society. Our members also adopted the new EATTA rule book. A major component of which is introducing the new electronic tea payment system. This system will provide reassurance to producers and brokers that they get paid the proceeds of the sale of their teas efficiently. Members have approved the system and it will now run as a parallel system to the previous auction trading system so that the members have a choice on the system to use.
As part of efforts to modernize the auction so as to make it efficient and to reduce the cycle time, an ambitious plan to automate the Mombasa auction is in the works. As part of the process IT consultants were commissioned to carry out a feasibility study that will guide the implementation of the project. The Feasibility study will provide the basis for the way forward. Our aim is to make the auction open and accessible 24/7 which will significantly reduce the cycle time from the current two weeks.
EATTA is working with relevant authorities on harmonizing and enhancing the tea industry standards in line with global trends. We have set as goals to have our members seek principal standards; ISO 22000:2005 (Food Safety management system) and Quality management System (QMS) certification that will enable us continue to maintain the high reputation that we are recognized for. Last week the secretariat organised a highly successful food safety standards and certification workshop for our members.
Identifying new markets is an integral part of the EATTA mandate. In this regard EATTA has secured funding from the EU to develop capacity in our members to better market tea in existing markets as well as new products for the existing markets. EATTA has joined the International Tea Committee as associates where we can access up to date statistics and information to share with our members.
We are also driving a taskforce set up together with, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Trade, Ministry of Agriculture, Tea Research Foundation and Tea Board of Kenya on intellectual property value capture for tea that has the potential to significantly enhance the price we negotiate when selling our tea. The initiative has started in Kenya and will be extended to our other member countries.
Tea is an important foreign exchange earner for each of our member countries. We feel that going forward we will get the appropriate level of coverage. This is a beginning of a new level of engagement.
For more information
Dr. Kipkirui Arap Lang’at OGW
Managing Director
East Africa Tea Trade Association
041 2228460 / 041 2220093
Tea Trade Centre
