Tea farmers lobby for high farm gate prices

Stakeholders in the tea sector will on Thursday, met the Ministry of Agriculture to negotiate the possible increase of farm gate prices. Tea farm gate price is what farmers are paid for every kilogram of green leaf tea that they supply to the factories.

"We have been in discussions with the farmers and other stakeholders about increasing the prices and we have sent the deliberations over to the Minister for the final decision,” Anthony Butera, the Director General of Ocir-Thé told Business Times.

Currently a kilogram of green leaf is sold at Rwf86 but farmers want it to be increased to at least Rwf110 per kilogram. Sources said that private factory owners want the prices to be capped at Rwf90 per kilogram.

However Butera said Ocir-Thé, the institution that regulates the tea industry, has recommended an increase from Rwf86 per kg of green leaf to between Rwf95 and Rwf100 per kg depending on the farmer’s production per hectare.

The increase will mean that the cost of production per kilogram will not exceed what farmers earn from each kilogram produced.

Inyangye industries mineral water acquires product quality mark Rwanda Bureau of Standards (RBS)  granted Inyange industries a product quality mark for its mineral water that will boost its exports, according to the industry official.

Victor Kinuma, Inyange’s Marketing Manager said that the mark was granted last month following their application to RBS, a body that monitors products’ standards in the country.

"We have acquired the mark for mineral water for starters but the process is on to get the mark for all our products,” said Kinuma.

DFID boosts access to finance Rwf8.7bn

The Department for International Development (DFID), a UK programme promoting development and reducing poverty has committed £10m (Rwf8.7b) to improve access to financial services by many Rwandans.

Access to Finance Rwanda (AFR) also seeks to achieve sustainable development in the livelihoods of the poor through increased access to financial services for the poor rural and urban inhabitants.

This was announced during the launch of the project that will run for four years.

"This programme comes at the right time given that Rwanda’s financial sector is still low. It will boost us to develop it (financial sector),” said François Kanimba, Governor of the National Bank of Rwanda (BNR).
 
Inflation eases by 2%

Rwanda’s annual inflation dropped significantly by 2.08 percent from 4.54 percent in the month January to 2.46 percent in February, according to the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR).

The underlying inflation, which excludes fresh food and energy, cooled to 6.1 percent in February from 7.4 percent in the previous month.

"The decrease in the consumer prices index is attributable to the decrease in food and non-alcoholic beverages,” the NISR said Wednesday in a statement.

The national statistics body said that price of food and non-alcoholic beverages reduced by 1.65 percent while prices of housing, water, electricity and other fuels registered a slight decline of 1.02 percent.

"It is noted that the decrease of 1.65 percent in prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages is primarily attributable to the decrease of 1.5 percent of vegetables and 2.05 percent of bread and cereals,” the statement said.

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