Nairobi, Aug 18 - Kenya named a new board for its tea industry regulator on Tuesday to drive reform of a sector that is the country's second biggest source of hard currency.
The east African nation is the world's biggest exporter of black tea. But the government is worried that a lack of tight regulations and a concentration of exports into three markets is posing a risk to the valuable industry.
"Unless we reform, we will be edged out by market forces and countries that are prepared to change tack," Agriculture Minister William Ruto told a news conference.
Proposed reforms include minimum education qualifications for factory directors, as well as the barring of factory managers from officiating at elections for factory directors.
Factory mismanagement is often criticised by Kenyan farmers, some of whom cut down their tea bushes last year in anger at low earnings.
Brokers at the weekly tea auction in the port city of Mombasa will also be registered, and those who fail to pay farmers their earnings will be barred from the sales.
"It is good ... we believe it creates one more avenue of accountability, to have the government having an oversight over them (the traders)," said Kipkurui Lang'at, managing director of the East Africa Tea Trade Association.
Ruto said the government was also letting growers mechanise their operations by gradually introducing tea plucking machines.
That move had been opposed by labour unions, which said the machines would cause thousands of job losses in the tea growing highlands of the country's Rift Valley.
Ruto said Kenya would continue to seek new tea export markets to minimise the risks associated with a fall in demand or trade disputes. Some 60 percent of Kenya's tea is currently exported to Pakistan, Egypt and the United Kingdom.
"That is not something to be proud of," Ruto said, adding that the government was pursuing markets in Iran and Hong Kong, which is seen as a gateway to the huge Chinese market.
Tea production in Kenya is expected to fall by some 6 percent this year due to dry weather, but earnings are seen rising to about 65 billion shillings ($851.3 million), versus last year's 62 billion shillings, due to record high prices.