Energy Efficiency Potentials in the Kenyan Tea Sector
Overview
Kenya is one of the leading producers of tea – the largest in Africa and next to China, India and Sri Lanka one of the global leaders. However, tea is processed under high energy input whereas the use is often times unsustainable and also quite costly, so, that there exists a high energy saving potential. With the purpose to exploit these potentials, GIZ-Powering Agriculture enters into a development partnership which aims to improve the energy-use in Kenyan tea factories in order to improve the energy efficiency and to mitigate climate change by generating knowledge about economically feasible investments which save energy, mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and which increase the productivity of the tea factories.
Kenya's tea sector and its energy input
Kenya's Tea Sector
Kenya is one of the leading producers of tea, coffee, and flowers. Thus the agricultural sector is responsible for 65% of all export revenues (Kenia AHK 2014a). Especially the tea industry is next to tourism and the horticultural sector one of the most productive industries in Kenya with an average annual growth rate of 4% over the past 10 years(Kenia AHK 2014a). While agriculture constitutes the largest share to export revenues, tea production generates the biggest capital share of the agricultural sector. Within Africa Kenya is also the largest tea producer and next to China, India and Sri Lanka one of the global leaders (Kenia AHK 2014a). Worldwide the country is also the largest exporter of tea, whereas 95% of all produced tea is exported and only 5% is consumed in Kenya directly (Kenia AHK 2014b).
Energy Input
Processing of tea is very energy-intense, especially the processing activities drying, grading and packaging, so that to a large extend, tea is produced under a high energy input (Kenia AHK 2014b). Thereby, 85% of the whole energy consumption relates to thermal energy and the remaining 15% to electricity (Kenia AHK 2014b). As a result 30% of total production costs refer to energy needs (Kenia AHK 2014a).
The most energy intensive step is drying which is also the reason why many companies changed their boiler techniques and switched from oil to wood (Kenia AHK 2014b). Although the costs could be cut by one-third, the factories are facing sustainability problems.
Nonetheless, the current focus is on electricity. Most of the electricity (59%) is used while withering and during the CTC (crushing, tearing, curling) –process (Kenia AHK 2014b). However, one major problem of tea factories is that they are often at the end of the distribution line, so that they face heavy grid imbalances and variations in voltage which results in standby-generators working for many hours (Kenia AHK 2014b). In addition, the energy auditing of one of the KTDA tea factories revealed the following: although electricity has a share of only 15% of the total energy consumption, it has a share of more than 50% of total energy costs (Kenia AHK 2014b). Therefore and also as the tea processing is very energy-intensive, alternative energy sources such as hydro, wind, or solar but also the identification of energy saving potentials are interesting for the tea sector.
Development Partnership
“Improving energy efficiency in Kenyan tea factories” is a pilot project under the development partnership of GIZ Powering Agriculture with Bettys and Taylors of Harrogate and the Kenya Tea Development Agency Holdings Ltd. (KTDA).
Bettys and Taylors of Harrogate, founded in 1919, is an important and rapidly growing UK-based tea company. The company pursues an ambitious and leading sustainability strategy that includes a reduction of 50% in relative carbon throughout its supply chain. In addition it works closely with its strategic suppliers within KTDA in order to help to achieve the goal and bring benefits to the factories, the farmers and the environment. The company is also one of the founders of the Ethical Tea Partnership which is a member organization and association of 40 international tea companies. The partnership aims to support the industry along the value chain in its further development in terms of sustainability (Kenia AHK 2014b). ETP has been working on energy issues for climate change mitigation together with KTDA for the past five years and has had a very successful PPP with the GIZ that assisted KTDA smallholder farmers to adapt to climate change.
Kenya Tea Development Agency Holdings Ltd. (KTDA) is the most important market player in Kenya’s tea sector which manages 63 tea factories and which constitutes 60% of the national tea production (ZMA Kenia). Thereby KTDA comprises large plantations and around 560.000 smallholder farmers who deliver tea to the KTDA factories. The remaining 40% hark back to big plantations so-called Tea Estates (Kenia AHK 2014b).
The Powering Agriculture development Partnership with Betty’s and Taylors of Harrogate and Kenya Tea Development Agency Holdings Ltd. explores the potentials of energy savings. Energy audits in four tea factories analyse energy use and develop recommendations for improvements. Trainings courses provide technicians with the qualifications to carry out energy audits in more factories
Further Information
Energy Saving Potentials in Agriculture
References
Kenia AHK (2014a). Zielmarktanalyse Energieeffizienz in der Industrie und in Gebäuden – Kenia und Tansania
Kenia AHK (2014b). Zielmarktanalyse Kenia – Solar PV & Windkraft. Mit Profilen der Marktakteure.
