Tea in Rwanda
Tea in Rwanda
RWANDA
George William Kayonga, c.e.o. of the National Agriculture Export Board (NAEB) told tea farmers during a recent national forum that the industry needs to boost quality along the tea value chain of supply in 2015. He stressed the need to improve factory processing efficiency and enhance the value and volume of tea exports through value addition and product diversification.
He said that the aim is to make the tea sector sustainable and competitive globally while enhancing its contribution to the national economy. Experts believe that plucking, leaf quality, transportation, and technology need to be improved, and the national tea policy aims to promote domestic tea consumption, promote industry performance, and enhance support systems.
Rwanda’s tea industry currently consists of 11 factories and six tea projects and produces 23,000 metric tons of tea annually. The plan is to build a further five factories, and upgrade the older ones. NAEB plans to distribute more than 43 million seedlings of tea by the end of 2017 and hopes that export earnings will double by 2017 to around $147 million.