Set in the tranquil valleys of vast acres of tea plantations, is Ngere Tea Factory located in Murang’a County Central province. The area is covered by physical features such as River Chania, River Kayuyu and River Thika. The famous Ndakaini Dam that is the source of water for Nairobi residents is also located in the area.

Ngere tea factory covers about 2,400 HA with 21,464,885 tea bushes. Making it among one of the largest KTDA managed factories. It was established on 17th November 1993 to help ease the congestion at Njunu Tea Factory. It has 185 buying centers. Small scale tea farmers in the area produce a lot of tea.

The factory is known for producing the best quality tea in the world market and goes by this buy line to communicate its mark of quality. As an industrial unit, it serves 8,000 small scale farmers from Murang’a County.

Tea in Ngere is graded in two categories:

• Primary grading and secondary grading. In primary grading the tea is subdivided into four products: BP 1 – broken pekoe 1, PF1 pekoe fanning 1, PD pekoe dust and TMF.n
• Secondary grading is divided into dust, fanning, f1 and BMF (Broken mixed fanning)

One unique feature of this factory is the 441 acres of land that it has used for sustainable fuel. The factory is keen on planting trees with approximately 7,000 trees already planted in the compound. It has also procured 160 acres of agricultural land to specifically plant eucalyptus trees.

One of the challenges Ngere has faced over the passed year is over supply of tea, poor road network, high energy and labor costs.

The factory is looking to be more efficient in the process so as to bring down the cost of production. See energy costs go down by improving efficiencies in thermo energy. Fitting gadgets that use less electricity.