Tea production, sales drop

Rwanda is likely to fail to attain her annual tea sales and output targets after the national tea authority, Ocir-Thé, reported a shortfall in the crop’s yield for the last three months. The parastatal reported gross sales of $11.06m from August to October form the harvest of 11.5 million kgs against the target of 21 million kgs, the reduction being attributed to the dry season. According to Anthony Butera, the Director General of Ocir-Thé, the dry season that was experienced in the previous months affected the earlier target in both production and sales, hence having a negative impact on the farmers.“We registered less production which could ultimately put us in a poor position to achieve our annual goal,” Butera said. Total sales from tea between January and September were 16,391,000 against the projection of 24 million kgs as green leaf output reached 69,463,000 kgs. However, Butera said that general prices at Mombasa auctioning market remained stable at an average of $2.6 per kg while the local farmers still earned Rwf96.6 for every kg. “The drought affected both the farmers and the country’s general production because low production means low revenues for the farmers hence low income,” added Butera.Rwanda sells most of her teas to the Middle East and European countries. Ends

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Tea production, sales drop