BLOOMBERG - Rwandan tea production rose 28 percent in March, the OCIR Tea Authority in Rwanda said.

The country produced 1.89 million kilograms (4.17 million pounds) of tea in the month, compared with 1.48 million kilograms in February, the agency in a report on its website revealed recently.  It didn’t give a reason for the increase.

Rwanda expects production to increase by 23 percent this year to 24.6 million kilograms, OCIR Thé said recently in February 2009.

The tea authority owns six tea estates and buys the crop from about 30,000 small-scale farmers.

Rwanda sells about 60 percent of its tea at the Mombasa Tea Auction in neighboring Kenya, with the remainder sold directly to merchants.

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