Private tea firms eat into KTDA market share NEWS Silas Njibwakale, the managing director of Kipkebe Tea Company, a subsidiary of agricultural firm Sasini, at of the company’s tea estates in Kisii County. [Stanley Ongwae, Standard] The Kenya Tea Development Authority (KTDA) is facing rising competition from private tea companies for green leaf from its contracted farmers. One such company is Kipkebe Tea Company, a subsidiary of Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed agricultural firm Sasini, which outsourced close to 30 million kilos of green tea from local farmers last year. This helped improve its output and, in turn, recover from a Sh337 million loss it had registered the previous year.