Ocir-Thé —the agency that regulates tea activities in Rwanda predicts that volumes of made tea sold through the Mombasa auction will rise as the rainy season sets in.
However, the agency predicts prices to dwindle occasioned by a rise in green leaf production that will lead to excess supply.

This week, on the Mombasa auction, Rwanda’s tea net sales dropped by as much as 35.9 percent to 68,448 Kgs from last week’s 106,753 Kgs.

The average price per kilogram registered a slight decrease of 2.3 percent to $3.04 from $3.08 in the previous week.

"We are expecting to increase our weekly sales at Mombasa as the rains come since we shall have more harvest,” Hermenegilde Shyaka Head of Administration and Human Resource Development at Ocir- Thé said.

About 62 percent of Rwanda’s tea is sold through the weekly Mombassa auction market. Only 37 percent is sold directly while the remaining one percent is collected from local sales.

Shyaka also envisages much production due to the application of fertilizers coupled with the rain.

"This is a period in every year where production is high, we expect high production up to March next year,” Shyaka explained.

In the first half of this year, Rwanda’s tea revenue earnings showed a slight increase of 1.2 percent to Rwf22.95m up from Rwf22.66m in the same period last year.

On the international market, tea prices have been rising slightly because of a fall in production following unfavorable weather conditions in India while the demand for the commodity in Europe remains strong.

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