Market Research and Product Development

Services

Monitoring and dissemination of market information, including identification of the local and global supply-demand situation;
Promote trade and market access for Kenya tea;
Create overseas market linkages for Kenya tea;
Conduct Kenya tea market research, intelligence gathering and surveys on traditional, emerging and potential markets for Kenyan tea;
Build capacity of value chain players on product development, adaptation and product design, packaging, labelling, branding and enhancement of exporting skills at both sectoral and firm levels and providing business counselling services to potential and existing exporters;
Promote and advise on strategies for value addition prior to the export of tea from Kenya.

Product Development

The Cut, Tear and Curl (CTC) is the most dominant method of tea processing in Kenya. Depending on the fermentation process, CTC teas are categorized as Black, Oolong or Green. Among the specialty tea, Kenya produces orthodox tea, green tea, purple tea, white tea, Oolong, instant tea, organic tea, tea aroma, matcha tea, yellow tea and tea extracts.

Enterprise development

Tea Directorate enhances competitiveness, expansion and diversification of Kenya's tea exports through interventions in product development and adaptation such as product design, value-added processing, packaging, labelling, branding and enhancement of exporting skills at both sectoral and firm levels. In addition, the Directorate facilitates the mainstreaming of export-oriented tea enterprises particularly the youth. In collaboration with local agencies and development partners the Directorate will conduct enterprise development programmes including export trade training, export coaching and market linkages for export enterprises.

The overall objective enterprise development is to grow tea exports by assisting packers, buyers and brokers of tea overcome existing design and packaging bottlenecks in order to achieve a higher level of export performance and foreign exchange earnings.

Under product development which is primarily centered on value addition, enterprises will be taken through the following:-

Instructive Training Workshops to provide information on market trends, practical tips and general topics on product design & development;
Onsite Company Coaching (one-on-one practical coaching at the production site / premises of the beneficiary enterprise);
Packaging and labelling;
Certification (quality assurance);
Follow up;
Mini exhibition to showcase the newly developed products;
Test Marketing / Market linkage through Regional or International trade promotion events (i.e. trade fairs & exhibitions, expos, buyer-seller meetings, in-store promotion activities, trade missions etc.).

(Attached is the enterprise profile form)—see attached

Market development and promotion

International Tea Promotion

Guided by the structured approach to export market prioritization, Tea Directorate undertakes to identify export market opportunities for Kenya Tea and formulate appropriate market entry and penetration strategies. This will be realized through informed market research and survey’s findings, trade missions, contact promotion programmes, buyer/ seller meetings, trade fairs and exhibitions and inward buying missions.

On an annual basis the Tea Directorate in consultation with tea industry stakeholders develops the Annual Promotional Plan (APP) which lists prioritized promotional events to guide its export market development activities. The APP is a reflection of joint efforts, both public and private sectors, in consolidating and enlarging Kenya’s tea traditional export markets and diversifying into new and emerging export market of Eastern Europe, North America, Asia and Rest of Africa. The objective of such extensive consultations is to minimize duplication of efforts by various stakeholders and to ensure focused export market development initiatives.

The development of the programme is informed by extensive market analysis prioritizing Kenya’s markets into four tiers, namely: Traditional, Emerging and New markets respectively.