KTDA to Import 99,000 Tonnes of Fertiliser for Kenya's Smallholder Tea Farmers

The Kenya Tea Development Agency will import 99,000 metric tonnes of fertiliser (about 109,000 US tons) for more than 750,000 smallholder tea farmers ahead of the 2026/27 production season, a KTDA notice said.

The consignment, 1.98 million 50-kilogramme bags of NPK fertiliser (a 26:5:5 nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium blend), is to arrive at the Kenyan coast between August and September 2026, in time for distribution before the October short rains, the notice said. The fertiliser will be bagged at the port, then moved to KTDA-managed factories and buying centres, where growers collect it. KTDA offers a credit scheme that lets farmers pay in installments rather than the full sum upfront.

For the haulage, KTDA has approved transport rates, under tender KTDA/043/2026, of KES 17.79 (about $0.14) per tonne per kilometre for factories in its Zone A, and KES 15.00 (about $0.12) per tonne per kilometre for factories in Zones B and C, both inclusive of VAT. The final per-bag cost to farmers remains unsettled, the notice said, and will turn on global natural gas prices, exchange rates, crude oil prices, and shipping costs.

At 99,000 tonnes, the planned import sits just below the 99,875 tonnes procured for the prior season, roughly flat year over year.

Fertiliser ranks among the largest single input costs a smallholder carries, and its timely, affordable supply feeds directly into green-leaf yields and into what a farmer clears once the crop reaches auction. KTDA's smallholder network, working plots of roughly 0.5 to 2 hectares, accounts for over 60 percent of Kenya's total tea production, according to KTDA. The terms of one fertiliser programme thus reach a long way down the country's tea economy.

Sources: Food Business MEA, KTDA to import 1.98M fertiliser bags for 750,000 tea farmers ahead of 2026/27 season; The Standard, KTDA to import 1.9 million bags of fertiliser for smallholder tea farmers; KTDA, FAQs.