From the time tea was introduced into Kenya more than a century ago, it has been a top earner for the country. In 2015, for example, the tea sector contributed Ksh124 billion ($1.24 billion) to the economy, up from Ksh101 billion ($1.01 billion) in 2014.

The message doing rounds is that the tea sector is doing “very well” based on reports from the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA), which declared the “highest ever” bonuses in September. However, these reports do not appreciate that the record bonus was due to higher crop quantities posted not record per unit earnings.

Equally, the numbers being offered are not representative of the overall state of the tea sector.

Even with its economic contribution, the sector has experienced some turbulence, most notably a strike by 26,000 employees of the Kenya Tea Growers Association (KTGA) member estates in June that cost the sector millions of shillings in revenue: About Ksh575 million ($5.75 million) or 10.4 million kilogrammes of green leaf went unpicked.

A lot of property was also destroyed, robbing the sector of momentum. What is more, in some parts of the country, farmers continue to uproot their tea bushes owing to disillusionment with the sector’s prospects.

The industry has also suffered from high costs of production. Today, three-fifths of tea sector revenue goes to operational expenses. This is major problem as the prices of tea are down 40 per cent at the Mombasa auction over the past 10 years. As a consequence of depressed earnings, production costs are stifling operations in the sector — often, production costs surpass revenue, creating losses.

A recent ruling by the Employment Court, awarding workers a contested pay rise, would have increased the wages by 54 per cent — the ruling has since been set aside — with unprecedented increases in labour and production costs. Smallholder farmers would have been forced to raise their plucking rates to sustain the labour.

The increased plucking rates in the plantation sector would have led to a decrease in business for the smallholder farmers, who would then have had to compete for available labour, causing an increase in their labour costs by about Ksh12 (US cents 12) per kilogramme of greenleaf plucked.

These farmers get paid an initial payment Ksh14 (US cents 14) per kilogramme delivered to their factories, meaning that they would have to look for funds elsewhere to subsidise their labour costs. This isn’t sustainable. They would also have had to look for funds to subsidise the cost of production, resulting in a fall in the performance of the industry.

The implication here is that tea growing would become too expensive, pushing out many players. The country would lose its standing in the world market, and the foreign earnings derived from it.

To ensure sustainability in the sector, the cost of production needs to be reduced to, first, ensure that the smallholder farmers can and do produce more. This is crucial because in the 18 counties that produce tea, smallholder farmers are responsible for the production of 60 per cent of the tea, with the remaining 40 per cent coming from commercial plantations.

Smallholder farmers need support to ensure that they get more revenue, which would translate into increased wages for their workers.

Tea is something we should all be proud of as a country. Its economic and diplomatic benefits are well documented, helped in no small way by the fact that Kenya produces some of the best tea in the world.

The sector needs more support from the government — it is the only way to ensure we do not destroy such a massive contributor to our economy. It equally needs support from stakeholders — owners, managers and workers — to ensure the once-vibrant sector regains its glory and retains its spot at the top of the country’s economic pecking order.

Apollo N. Kiarii is the chief executive of the Kenya Tea Growers Association.