The Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) has issued a warning to tea farmers of an emerging scam where fraudulent individuals call them, claiming they can increase the weight of their green leaf tea.
In the notice dated April 15, the agency urged the farmers to stay on the lookout for such calls and report the fraudsters to the necessary authorities. "We have noted with concern that there are fraudsters calling tea farmers purporting to increase their green leaf weight/kilos," the notice read. "Be on the lookout, and do not fall prey to the scam.
Report such fraudsters to your factory and authorities." Kenyan farmers harvesting their crops File This comes just a few weeks after Agriculture Cabinet Secretary (CS) Mutahi Kagwe banned the hawking of green leaf tea, a practice that involves independent tea processors and farmers buying green leaf tea directly from farmers, bypassing the established tea factory system.
The CS emphasised that this was against the Tea Act, which dictates that registered farmers deliver their tea leaves to their assigned factories.
