The price that farmers get for a kilogramme of tea leaves will increase in this farming season following an increase in prices for processed tea on the international market.

The decision was announced by the National Agricultural Export Development Board (NAEB).

Farmers will now earn 50 per cent of the price at which a kilogramme of processed tea is sold on the international market. This reflects 10 percentage points rise from 40 per cent that they currently earn on each kilogramme of processed tea sold on the international market.

Tea farm gate prices are dependent on prices on the international market.   

The is in line with a new pricing policy approved by a cabinet meeting of  November 14, 2012, which says that prices for tea leaves produced by farmers should be based on prices on the international markets.

Shyaka Helmenegilde, Coordinator of Rwanda Tea Farmers’ Cooperative Federation (FERWACOTHE), told The New Times that the move will increase farmers’ income and motivate them to produce more.

Farmers grow 70 per cent of that tea that is produced in the country while the remaining 30 per cent is produced by tea factories.

Pie Ntwari, NAEB’s Communication Officer, said Rwandan is performing well on at the international market.

"The more farmers sell big volumes, the more income they get,” Ntwari said.

Rwanda projects to generate $102 million (about Rwf93 billion) from tea exports in the 2019/2020 financial year, up from $83 million (about Rwf76 billion) it earned in the previous year, according to NAEB.

In order to get such revenues, NAEB says, the country expects to export 34,000 tonnes of processed tea, above the 30,000 tonnes that were exported last year.