The major income earner in Githongo
Mt. Kenya tea farming is the major and single economic activity that brings huge income in the Githongo tea factory area. Thus, it has a great significance in the lives of many families in the region because their livelihood is mainly drawn from tea farming activity. This is well manifested by the fact that a great deal of the area population works as tea green leaves pluckers and a significant number work at the Githongo Tea Factory as support work-force. Therefore, tea farming is highly regarded in the area and prudent measures have been put in place to ensure proper distribution of the income earned for a good development and improvement of living standards of the tea players in the area. Based on view, at family level, the husband and wife agree on modality of sharing tea brushes and each one of them is allocated an account number by the tea factory through which he or she could receive his or her tea income. This is aimed at ensuring good responsibility and accountability on spending of the tea income on different family needs and expenditures. This kind of arrangement in away mitigates any family conflict that could be associated with the distribution of tea earnings.
Trade On Friendship
We value the relationship between our tea producers in the Githongo catchment area and our tea consumers in Japan as we have been sourcing our teas only from Githongo Tea Factory since 1992. We as Kenya-Japan Trade On Friendship Co. Ltd, have visited the factory and the tea field for more than 100 times, and contributed to the public primary schools as well as to a scholarship within the Githongo tea catchment area. When we purchase the Githongo tea, a special payment known as “premium” on top of the tea price quoted at the Mombasa tea auction has always been paid. We believe our strong and long relationship with the farmers guarantees our tea quality due to a good flow of information and feedback on our customer taste.
Chemical-Free Tea
The Githongo tea farmers have maintained the production of free chemical teas as they do not use any pesticides or herbicides. During the manufacturing process of withering, C.T.C. (Crush-Tear-Curl) process, fermentation (oxidization), drying and sorting, nothing whatsoever is added to the teas. The producers together with our company have established a chemical free tea system that guides tea farmers on tea management and best practices to ensure chemical free tea.
Environmentally Friendly Tea
Tea bushes are planted without any lane for a tea-plucking machine as our tea farmers use hands to pluck the tea leaves. Since tea bushes are planted without a large space, tea bushes root firmly into the ground and this helps to prevent soil erosion.