Sorwathe’s Green Tea Factory
The new green tea factory at Sorwathe Tea Estates is the largest in Rwanda
RWANDA
The Sorwathe Tea Estate will help slake Africa’s growing thirst for green tea with the opening of a Rwf1 billion ($1.1 million) factory in November.
The factory is in the Northern Province in the Kinihira sector, Rulindo district, a tea growing region with some of the oldest gardens in the country.
Rohith Peiris, Sorwathe’s director general said “Green tea is something that is being thought about all over the world because of its health benefits. We embarked on this because buyers have been asking for this tea for quite some time.” The new plant is designed to produce organic green tea. The initial capacity is 300,000 kilos a year with most destined for export. Tea generated around $88 million last year with a value that is expected to increase to $92 million in 2018, making it the country’s most valuable export. Tea is currently grown by 42,840 farmers on 66,500 acres (26,897 hectares) across 12 districts.
Production capacity of the new plant could help the company earn about $1.2 million based on a price of around $4 per kilo. Sorwathe is the largest tea estate in Rwanda, processing 3.5 million kilos annually, about 15% of the country’s total.
The company also produces orthodox (whole leaf tea), white tea, and black teas for export to the US, UK, Canada, Ireland, South Africa, Japan, China, Pakistan, and France.