Rwanda’s tea industry could be destined for a better year following a consensus among key sector players to increase the liquor quality benchmark to at least 7 out of the possible 11 aggregates.

According to the National Agriculture Export Board (NAEB) achieving such a standard will not only boost the quality of tea exports, but will also improve competitiveness of the tea industry.

We should aspire to achieve an average of 7 aggregates of green leaf standard mark out of 11 aggregates, which is the maximum benchmark in quality of green tea leaves, George William Kayonga, the Naeb Chief Executive officer, told farmers during a recent national forum for tea farmers. He emphasised the need to boost quality along the value chain of supply in 2015.

"We target to improve factory processing efficiency that meets customer demands and enhance the value and volume of tea exports through value addition and product diversification,” Kayonga said.

He noted that the idea is to make the tea sector sustainable and competitive globally while enhancing its contribution to the national economy.

The efforts to boost quality along the value chain follows recently signed agreements between government and tea cooperatives to boost production across the county.

The tea industry registered a slight decline in production during 2013 and the first 11 months of 2014.

According to statistics, very few tea cooperatives and factories scored above 7 aggregates according to the 2013 -2014 quality liquor indicators on the quality and pricing of tea.

According to experts, if sector players don’t work hard to improve quality standards along the value chain, it could hurt the industry.

Government through EDPRS II is targeting to increase production from current 27,597.8 metric tons (MT) to 41,070.5 metric tons by 2018 and it’s through emphasizing quality that such targets will be achieved.

According to sector performance targets 2014-215, the sector’s productivity for the last 11 months was established at 22,202 metric tons (MT) compared to the projected 27,592 by the end of 2014 and 22,715 metric tons in 2013.

Over the past 11 months, the tea sector has so far fetched $48.2m which is still low compared to the annual target of $68.6m and $53.7m baseline.

The low productivity has been attributed to last year’s drought among other factors.

According to most farmers, low production was as a result of prolonged drought the country experienced in 2013. "Despite these challenges, we are still below the capacity and we must do more to improve both production and quality.”

"Prices on the international market were very low. That is why we want to achieve the minimum of at least 7 out of the maximum, in terms of quality to be able to compete. Stake holders need to understand that there is always a positive coloration between price and quality,” Kayonga stressed. More challenges ahead

According to NAEB, there are still challenges affecting both quality and productivity of the tea industry.

"More improvement is needed in the way these green leaves are handled in terms of plucking and transportation,” the Managing Director of Rwanda Mountain Tea, Jotham Majyalibu, said.

Experts believe that such initiatives should be complimented with market information, right skills, and proper technology for them to impact on the sector.

According to Pascal Nsabimana, the chairperson, Kobacyamu Tea Cooperative, there is need for cooperatives and factory owners to review green leaf transport systems and the costs involved, to be able to come up with a clear picture on how the problem can be addressed sustainability.

We should also work to increase leaf quality from 65 per cent to more than 68 per cent to be able to increase our competitiveness, he added.

The national tea policy

According to Eric Ruganintwali, the Quality and Regulation manager at Naeb, the national tea policy seeks to expand and diversify Rwanda’s market access to match expected increase in production.

"The policy seeks to promote domestic tea consumption, promote industry performance and enhance institutional capacity to facilitate coordination and supportive services.”

Rwanda’s tea sector consists of 11 factories and six tea projects with an average annual production of 23,000 metric tons 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 from about $65m to more $147m by 2017.

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