• Ngunjiri termed the envoy’s suggestion as an eye opener and that they have been spending a lot in buying trees and farms to plant trees.

• Waithanji said use of wood fuel is not a sustainable source of energy and that the factory was open to other possibilities.

KTDA has been urged to shift from the use of wood fuel to gas to conserve the environment.

Tea factories use wood fuel-powered boilers to produce steam used in green leaf tea driers and tea withering.

 Iranian Ambassador Jafar Barmaki said though the cost of gas may be the same as that of wood fuel, the use of gas will help preserve forests.

He said Iran is ready to work with the agency and the Kenyan government to bring in gas at a low cost.

Barmaki said it is time and resource consuming to plant and raise a tree until it is big enough for harvesting.

“The economic valuation of the environment is impossible to assess and sometimes you cannot assess how much a tree costs,” he said.

The ambassador spoke in Nyeri on Friday when he visited Chinga and Gitugi Tea Factories to promote trade relations between the two countries.

KTDA company secretary Patrick Ngunjiri termed the envoy’s suggestion as an eye-opener.

Gitugi factory chairperson Elizabeth Waithanji said the use of wood fuel is not sustainable and the factory is open to other possibilities.

Factories use tonnes of wood fuel to process tea annually, with Waithanji saying Gitugi uses firewood worth over Sh3 million yearly.

She, however, said they have never been able to use gas as it is expensive and has to be imported.

Kanja Thuku, working for KTDA management services, said the agency is ready to partner with Iran to benefit from their expertise and machinery.

He applauded the proposal to shift from wood fuel to gas, saying they will follow it up through the Iranian ambassador.

“That means we will stop cutting trees to address climate change because today we would be expecting a lot of rain here but you can see there is no rain and the production is going down,” Thuku said.

Caroline Gichuki, the economic and trade adviser to the Iranian ambassador, said Kenya ought to cement its partnership with Iran to bring down the cost of fertiliser.

She said the main raw material for making fertiliser comes from petrochemicals and that Iran is among the top three producers of the chemical.

“That is why you need to partner with them to lower the prices of fertiliser. By lowering the prices you are able to increase your production and save an extra coin,” Gichuki said.

“We need to partner with them because we can also take our tea there for blending and more value addition before being supplied to other countries neighbouring Iran,” she said.

Steel, which makes machinery used in tea processing, also comes from Iran, which is the top second global producer of steel.

Kenya imports tea processing machinery from India, which buys raw materials from Iran and sells finished products.

“You need to partner with Iran to achieve your agenda of modernisation,” she said.

Farmer Joseph Wachira said the idea of partnership with Iran on energy is welcome. He said wood fuel has been eating into their earnings.

Maina Gachie, the chairman of Chinga factory, said they were ready and willing to start the process of shifting from fuel wood to gas.

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