Tea Factory (CTC), Green-Leaf Route Collection & Mombasa Tea Auction Brokerage ERP: Bluetooth Leaf Weighing, Withering/CFU Telemetry, Outturn Yield & EATTA Catalog Settlement

Smallholder-owned and private estate tea factories across the Kericho, Bomet, Nandi Hills, Kisii, Nyamira, Nyeri, Kirinyaga, Murang’a, Embu, and Meru highlands process millions of kilograms of freshly plucked green leaf daily into Crush-Tear-Curl (CTC) and specialty Orthodox black, green, and purple teas destined for the East African Tea Trade Association (EATTA) Mombasa Tea Auction and direct export buyers. When leaf collection routes, factory withering/drying floors, and auction brokerage ledgers operate on fragmented systems, factories suffer from route-clerk weight manipulation at buying centers, high coarse-leaf and surface-water intake that depresses the Made-Tea outturn ratio below 21%, unmonitored Continuous Fermentation Unit (CFU) thermal spikes that dull liquor brightness, and multi-week delays reconciling auction USD lot sales into monthly smallholder payments and annual second payments (bonuses).

At devManue, we engineer end-to-end Tea Factory (CTC & Orthodox), Green-Leaf Route Collection & Mombasa Tea Auction ERP platforms that connect solar-powered Bluetooth field weighing kits at rural buying centers with factory PLC telemetry, garden-mark invoice batching, KPA/Mombasa producer warehouse warrants, and automated grower payrolls.

1. Offline Bluetooth Green-Leaf Buying Centers, Plucking Quality & Leaf-Truck Logistics

Over 60% of factory operating cost is tied to green-leaf procurement and leaf-carrier truck logistics across steep rural feeder roads. Our mobile Green-Leaf Collection & Route Management Suite eliminates paper receipt books at remote tea buying centers:

• Bluetooth Hanging Scales, NFC Grower Cards & Thermal Receipts: Leaf collection clerks pair rugged Android devices with digital Bluetooth hanging scales and portable solar thermal printers. A grower taps their NFC identification card, hangs thegunny/nylon leaf sack, and the scale locks gross weight minus standardized tare weight while printing an instant receipt showing cumulative month-to-date kilograms delivered.
• Two-Leaves-and-a-Bud Quality Inspection & Surface-Moisture Deductions: Before weighing, the clerk logs a random grab-sample leaf quality score (percentage of tender two leaves and a bud vs. coarse banji leaf) and applies a configurable surface-water deduction during heavy highland rain shifts so the factory does not pay growers for rainwater.
• Center-vs-Factory Gate Weighbridge Variance Audit: Every leaf truck’s route manifest aggregates the exact weights recorded across its assigned buying centers and compares that sum against the factory gate weighbridge weight upon arrival—immediately flagging transit shrinkage, unauthorized roadside offloading, or water evaporation variances by route driver and clerk.

2. Withering Trough Hygrometry, CTC/CFU Fermentation & Made-Tea Outturn Ratio Engine

Inside the factory, converting 100 kg of fresh green leaf (at ~77% moisture) into 22.5 to 24.0 kg of finished Made Tea (at 3.0–3.5% moisture) requires tight thermodynamic and enzymatic control across five sequential stages: Withering, Maceration (CTC Rollers / Rotorvane), Fermentation (CFU), Fluid-Bed Drying (FBD), and Electrostatic Sorting.

Our factory floor execution module logs trough withering durations (12–16 hours down to 68–70% withered leaf moisture), tracks CTC roller sharpening hours (to preserve cell rupture without heating the dhool), monitors CFU bed residence time and wet/dry bulb temperatures (24°C–27°C), and calculates exact shift and daily Made-Tea Outturn Ratios:

from decimal import Decimal, ROUND_HALF_UP

class TeaFactoryOutturnAndAuctionSettlementEngine:
    """
    Computes green-leaf to Made-Tea outturn efficiency, primary vs. secondary
    grade yield distribution, and smallholder initial + second payment (bonus)
    pool allocation from Mombasa Tea Auction USD proceeds.
    """
    @staticmethod
    def evaluate_factory_outturn_and_grower_bonus_pool(
        green_leaf_intake_kg: Decimal,
        rainwater_deduction_kg: Decimal,
        primary_grades_kg: dict,    # e.g. {"BP1": Decimal("18500"), "PF1": Decimal("42000"), "PD": Decimal("19500"), "D1": Decimal("8200")}
        secondary_grades_kg: dict,  # e.g. {"F1": Decimal("4100"), "DUST": Decimal("3200"), "BMF": Decimal("2500")}
        auction_gross_proceeds_usd: Decimal,
        realized_exchange_rate_kes: Decimal,
        brokerage_and_warehouse_costs_kes: Decimal,
        factory_processing_and_energy_costs_kes: Decimal,
        monthly_initial_rate_paid_per_kg_kes: Decimal,
    ) -> dict:
        net_green_leaf_kg = green_leaf_intake_kg - rainwater_deduction_kg
        primary_total_kg = sum(primary_grades_kg.values(), Decimal("0.00"))
        secondary_total_kg = sum(secondary_grades_kg.values(), Decimal("0.00"))
        total_made_tea_kg = primary_total_kg + secondary_total_kg

        outturn_ratio_pct = ((total_made_tea_kg / net_green_leaf_kg) * Decimal("100.00")).quantize(
            Decimal("0.01"), rounding=ROUND_HALF_UP
        )
        primary_grade_pct = ((primary_total_kg / total_made_tea_kg) * Decimal("100.00")).quantize(
            Decimal("0.01"), rounding=ROUND_HALF_UP
        )
        gross_revenue_kes = (auction_gross_proceeds_usd * realized_exchange_rate_kes).quantize(
            Decimal("0.01"), rounding=ROUND_HALF_UP
        )
        initial_payments_disbursed_kes = (net_green_leaf_kg * monthly_initial_rate_paid_per_kg_kes).quantize(
            Decimal("0.01"), rounding=ROUND_HALF_UP
        )
        net_distributable_bonus_pool_kes = (
            gross_revenue_kes
            - brokerage_and_warehouse_costs_kes
            - factory_processing_and_energy_costs_kes
            - initial_payments_disbursed_kes
        ).quantize(Decimal("0.01"), rounding=ROUND_HALF_UP)
        bonus_rate_per_kg_green_leaf_kes = (
            net_distributable_bonus_pool_kes / net_green_leaf_kg
        ).quantize(Decimal("0.01"), rounding=ROUND_HALF_UP)
        return {
            "net_green_leaf_kg": net_green_leaf_kg,
            "total_made_tea_kg": total_made_tea_kg,
            "made_tea_outturn_pct": outturn_ratio_pct,
            "primary_grade_yield_pct": primary_grade_pct,
            "gross_auction_revenue_kes": gross_revenue_kes,
            "net_bonus_pool_kes": net_distributable_bonus_pool_kes,
            "second_payment_bonus_per_kg_kes": bonus_rate_per_kg_green_leaf_kes,
        }

3. Invoice Lot Serialization, Tasting Room Organoleptic Scoring & Boiler Firewood/Briquette Costing

Once sorted through electrostatic fiber extractors and Middleton/Vibro sifters into primary grades (BP1, PF1, PD, D1) and secondary grades (F1, Dust, BMF), the tea is bulked in blending drums and packed into multi-wall kraft paper sacks orfoil-lined cartons (20 or 40 packages per pallet):

• Sequential Garden-Mark Invoice Numbering: Generates statutory factory invoice numbers by garden mark, grade, net/tare weight per bag, and production date, printing GS1 pallet barcodes for transit to Mombasa producer warehouses.
• Factory Tea Taster Liquor & Infusion Scoring: Captures daily tasting-room evaluations (dry leaf appearance, infused leaf copper brightness, liquor briskness, body, and cup color) linked directly back to CFU temperature logs and firewood boiler steam pressure.
• Eucalyptus Woodfuel Planters & Biomass Boiler Specific Energy Consumption: Tracks factory timber plantation maturity, firewood moisture content (seasoned vs. wet stacked cubic meters), and kilograms of Made Tea dried per cubic meter of firewood or macadamia/sawdust briquettes.

4. Mombasa Tea Auction (EATTA) Catalog Tracking, Prompt Date Settlement & Grower Bonus Payroll

Our marketing and brokerage module tracks every invoice from factory dispatch through Mombasa godown arrival (Warehouse Receipt / Warrant issuance), broker sample distribution, pre-auction valuation, live EATTA electronic auction hammer prices (USD/kg), out-lots/withdrawals, and Prompt Date USD collection—automatically reconciling grower fertilizer loans, SACCO deductions, and monthly/annual payouts.