Kaptumo,a satellite factory of Chebut tea factory falls within KTDA administrative Region VII. It is located in Ibanja sub-location, Kaptumo location, Kaptumo division, Nandi County, 340 Km from Nairobi and 25kms from mother factory Chebut within kapsabet town.

Kaptumo satellite was commissioned by agriculture minister HON.DR.SALLY KOSGEI.EGH.MP in April 2010 to manufacture black CTC with an installed annual processing capacity of 10 million.

ALTITUDE AND LONGITUDE

The Factory lies within Longitude 35.4⁰E of Greenwich, and at the equator between Latitude 0.2^o and 0.4^oN.

The Factory lies on 8 acres of land.

The factory is on relatively high altitude of between 1800-2000 m above sea level.

Growers and area under tea

Kaptumo catchment area has a total of 7706 registered growers with a total 2140.90 hectares under tea and 33 registered buying centres . The catchment has potential for higher production per unit area if improvement is done on crop husbandry and multinationals affecting quality of tea.

           CLIMATE:

Is conducive for both relief and conventional high rainfall, fairly warm

Soils:

The catchment has deep- red well drained volcanic loam soils.

This offers a suitable growing environment for tea.

Kind of Tea Grown:

The type of tea grown here is Assam tea with common clones being 6/8, 31/8, C12, T N14/3, SFS 150 and 303/577.

These clones were developed by Tea Research Foundation of Kenya, each with outstanding characteristics in terms of yield and quality.

Constitution of the Board of Directors:

The Company is a limited liability Company with a Board of Directors elected directly by the shareholders.

The Board authors corporate policies governing the conduct of Company business.

The basic operational unit is Green Tea Collection Centre owned by a group of growers within a locality: The daily affairs of the centre are governed by five member committee popularly elected by the affiliated tea growers.

The current Directors are as follows:

Mr.          Richard K. Kemboi    –      Chairman

Mr.         Kennedy Tanui            –      V/Chairman

Mr.         Robert Kipkemboi          –            Director

Mr.         Noah K. Choge                –           Director

Mr.         Nelson K. Bitok          –      Director

Mr.         Alfred K. Mwey              –       Director

Mr.         Khasiani K Abung’ana –     Regional Director

 Mr.        Stephen K. Maswai        –     Company Secretary- Rgn

Green leaf production since incepti:                           

BENEFITS TO THE COMMUNITY

1. Income earner to the farmers in terms of monthly payments for green leaf delivered and second (Bonus) payment for cumulated green leaf delivered for the year.
2. Improvement of access roads through Cess funds
3. Increased employment opportunities both for skilled, unskilled and economic activities surrounding the factory.
4. Extension services to the farmer’s.

Operations:

The Factory is headed by The Factory Unit Manager, who oversees all the       operations of the Company covering , Reporting to the Factory Unit Manager are line (Departmental) managers;-

 Extension services, Green Leaf Collection Logistics, Factory operations, information and communication Technology and Accounts.

Field Services:

Headed by The Field Services Coordinator (FSC) with four tea TESAs, the factory offers farmers with farming education through Farmers Field schools that empowers farmers with good farming methods within the catchment that has improved their livelihood. Growers are educated on various issues on environmental conservation measures ranging from:-

–         Ecosystem conservation

–         Water conservation

–         Integrated crop management

–         Soil management and conservation

–          Wild life protection

–         Waste management

Also they are enlightened on new and economical techniques through FFs (Tea husbandry techniques) trainings, farm visits, demonstrations, mini-field days, field day and Barazas which are held monthly/annually and promotes wide range of Agricultural activities.

KTDA  SCHOLARSHIP

It sponsors   bright and needy students within the catchment; to date we have 10 students who are benefiting under this scheme.

FACTORY PERFORMANCE

The company has continued to show a steady improvement in performance.

PAYMENT TO GROWERS:

CHALLENGES    

Some of the challenges we face include:

—  Tea hawking

—  Escalating costs of production

—  Exchange rate fluctuations

—  Market/buyer  driven tea prices

—  Poor roads: in some areas.

—  Low crop volumes,- under utilized facility.

1. i) ELECTRONIC WEIGHING SOLUTIONS

Electronic weighing solution has been developed and deployed for green leaf purchase from farmers. This has greatly reduced grower complaints related to the easy to manipulate manual weighing scales.

1. ii) CERTIFICATIONS:

1. a) ISO 9001:2015
2. b) ISO 22000:2018
3. c) Rainforest Alliance
4. d) Fair-trade

1. v) T.D.A LTD FERTILIZER CREDIT SCHEME

KTDA runs a fertilizer credit scheme whose terms of payment are well spread out over the year and the price of fertilizer is at cost.

KAPTUMO TEA FACTORY CO.LTD

P.O BOX 513 – 30300, KAPSABET

[email protected]

Factory Directors