Rwanda tops African tea competition

Rwandan teas took two out of the three top positions in a tea-tasting competition held on the sidelines of the just concluded African Tea Convention & Exhibition that brought together over 27 tea-producing countries. 

(file photo)

The Gisovu tea factory based in the Western Province produced the best-tasting tea in Africa while the Kitabi tea factory from Southern Province was placed third ranking higher than top tea-producing nations such as Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

“The good performance is by the two factories is great news because proves that Rwandan teas are some of the best in the world,” said Alex Kanyankore, the Director General of the National Agriculture Export Board. “This will drive up prices of our teas – not only will the Government of Rwanda benefit from the increased amounts of foreign exchange, but so will the factory owners and the farmers themselves. This will also encourage other investors in the tea sector to look at Rwanda as a good investment destination.”

The inaugural African Tea Convention & Exhibition, held from July 20 to 22 in Mombasa, was organized by the East African Tea Trade Association. The event was an opportunity for participants  to interact with industry experts, agriculture input suppliers, scholars, financiers and investors, logistic and warehousing experts, tea packers and retailers, shippers and freight agents, supply chain corporate, commodity traders, tea brokers, tea value adders & blenders, world tea leaders and technology experts. The Convention also showcased cutting edge technology, best practices, recent research findings and studies.

69% of Rwanda’s tea is sold via the weekly Mombasa tea auction, and 30% by direct sales to importers while local sales account for one percent.  The major clients in both auction and Direct Sales are Lipton Limited, James Finley Ltd, M.J. Clarke Ltd, Van Rees Limited and Global Tea and Commodities.

Posted by Staff Reporter on Jul 23 2011. Filed under Business, Other News, Weekly Highlights. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.