The Home Of Eden Tea
Karirana Estates Limited is an integrated agribusiness involved in growing, manufacturing, packing and selling of tea to the local and export market.
OUR STORY
Every cup of Karirana Tea is served with a rich heritage of Kenya’s tea history. In 1903, Kenya’s first tea seedlings were introduced and planted in Limuru, about 5 kilometres from Karirana Estates. The Caine brothers brought these seedlings from India. Limuru, being at a high altitude and having rich acidic soils, provided a natural habitat for tea to flourish. However, commercial cultivation of tea in Kenya commenced in the early 1920s. Between 1925 and 1930, two brothers from the Turnstall family of the United Kingdom planted the first tea bushes in what now comprises Karirana Estates.
Most of the farms that now make up Karirana Estates were originally used for rearing cattle or growing wattle and geraniums before the land use changed to tea cultivation. In 1956, Karirana Estates Limited was incorporated when Mackenzie Dalgelty bought a number of farms to grow and manufacture high-quality tea for export and appointed George Williamson Kenya Limited as the managing agents.
Our Mission
We are committed to innovatively and sustainably producing quality tea and providing quality services that meet and exceed the expectations of our customers and stakeholders.
Our Vision
Karirana Estates Limited aims “To make Eden Tea the preferred tea in East Africa
Farm Operations
About 25% of the green leaf supplied to our factory comes from our nucleus estate. This consists of 324Ha of mature tea which ranges from old seedling teas to the modern clonal varieties that contributes to the optimal mix of quality and sustained production.
The art of growing tea has a rich heritage from years of experience where all agronomic activities employed are based on sound research and good husbandry practices that are reviewed periodically to keep up with the emerging technologies. All this is geared towards having productive tables that are plucked throughout the year giving the much needed quality raw material to the factory.
Extension Services
Extension services operations was launched in 1998 to improve out growers’ productivity and support the small scale tea farmers in the neighbourhood.
The operations has over 500 small scale farmers and has greatly enhanced their production in terms of quantity and quality of green leaf through expert advice on crop husbandry and technical support. The Extension services operates a credit scheme for it’s registered out growers’ farmers, which enable them to conveniently access farm inputs at cost.
Karirana Tea Management Services (KTMS)
Karirana Tea management Services (KTMS) Limited, is a subsidiary of Karirana Estates Limited. It was incorporated in year 2000 to provide professional management services to tea farms and tea manufacturing factories within East Africa.. The company’s activities are coordinated from our head office in Karirana Estates, Limuru.
Tea Processing Factory
The factory is the processing centre of Karirana tea. It is here that the necessary processes of manufacturing Black CTC tea, Green Orthodox tea, and Purple Orthodox tea takes place. The processing unit can handle 100 tons of Greenleaf per day. The factory maintains a Food Safety Management System which is ISO 22000:2018 certified. This guarantees our customers a safe and quality product at all times. Due to its high quality, Karirana tea has found favor amongst buyers in all key markets both local and outside Kenya including Pakistan, the United Kingdom, Egypt, Afghanistan, Sudan, the United States of America, and the Middle East.