Ocir-Thé seeks to increase tea plantations

Rwanda Tea Authority, Ocir-Thé, has said that it is planning to increase tea plantations by 75 percent from 12000ha to 21000ha by 2012. Antoine Butera, the Director General of Ocir-Thé told Business Times that the authority is encouraging tea growers to expand plantations outside traditional areas of production in order to increase national output of green leaf. Ocir-Thé estimates that they could generate 60,000 new jobs by 2012 double the current workforce employed by the tea sector.