The Government, cooperatives and tea factories, yesterday, signed agreements to scale up tea production and exports across the country.

The agreements were signed between the National Agriculture Export Board (Naeb) and 19 tea cooperatives, with Ministry of Trade and Industry and that of Local Government bearing witness.

The signing took place during a national tea stakeholders meet organised by Naeb in Kigali yesterday.

The memorandum of understanding is renewable yearly basing on results.

Under the deal, cooperatives and tea factories committed to increasing productivity, quality through expansion and improved green leaf management and transport systems.

Tea factories committed to providing technical and extension support to cooperatives and facilitating farmers with knowledge on best farming practices.

They also committed to assisting farmers improve on the quality of green leaf, tea plantation and field management skills.

Naeb, on the other hand, in collaboration with district leaders, will then take charge of mass mobilisation to expand tea and assist cooperatives in mapping tea plantations.

The export board will also provide capacity building and training programmes to ensure best agriculture practices among farmers.

George William Kayonga, Naeb’s chief executive, said the deal would not only add value to the country’s tea exports but also contribute to the general economic development.

In addition, it will assist in regulation and advocacy in terms of resource mobilisation for tea expansion, he added.

"We, therefore, need to put together our minds and efforts and come up with strategies to be able to achieve our economic objectives. Cooperatives need to plan how to build capacity that will help us to address the gaps within the sector,” Kayonga told The New Times.

"We can’t outcompete our competitors basing on volumes; our comparative advantage is on quality rather than quantity and that’s why we were engaging some of you aggressively on this.”

Robert Opirah, the director-general for trade and investment at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, said they will ensure that all parties adhere to the terms and conditions of the agreements.

"We have put in place a monitory team that will be tracking performance every month; we want to increase productivity so that we are able to reduce on the importation. That way, we will be able to reduce on our trade deficit,” Opirah told The New Times on the sidelines of the meeting.

"Our role is to provide these farmers with the necessary infrastructure that will enable them to increase production.”

The Managing Director of Rwanda Mountain Tea, Jotham Majyalibu, said the signing laid a concrete foundation, where government and private sector partner to address the constraints and boost productivity.

Rwanda’s tea sector consists of 11 factories and six tea projects with an average annual production of 23,000 metric tonnes of dry tea.

The plan is to increase the number to 16 operational tea factories while improving on the old factories.

Naeb plans to distribute over 43 million seedlings of tea by the end of 2017. The initiative could see the country’s annual tea export earnings double to $147 million by 2017.

According to second Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy, government wants to increase acreage for tea plantations from current 25,547 hectares to 38,000 hectares.