A Sorwathe artefact at the current plant. the tea factory has now grown to open a new one
Sorwathe Ltd – Rwanda’s tea-growing and processing company, has launched a new green tea factory worth $1 million (Rwf866 million) in Rulindo district, Northern Province.
Factory owners say the new venture, located in rural Kinihira sector, will leverage the company’s production and export capacity from from 20 tons to 300 tons of green tea daily.
Pie Ntwari – Public Realations at , public relations officer at National Agriculture Export Board (NAEB), the new factory will provide additional employees of 50 people.
Ntwari told KT press that “the new factory will bring foreign currency after importation of green tea while local currency is also targeted”.
Six months ago, Sorwathe tea scooped eleven of the twelve awards for the best quality teas at the Africa Tea Convention in Nairobi, Kenya.According to NAEB officials, Tea prices shot in 2016 from Rwf193 per kilogram to Rwf292 a kilogram this year.
Currently, Rwanda produces one of the best quality teas varieties in the world such as black tea, green tea, orthodox tea; white tea, organic tea and spicy teas – with majority of those exported in raw form, according to officials from NAEB.
Tea is grown on 26,897ha by 42,840 farmers located in 12 districts mainly in the North, West and Southern parts of the country.
Meanwhile, Rwanda earned $8.6 million from tea exports as of June this year representing 39.4% increase in export revenue compared to $6.1 million that was recorded during the same period in 2016.
The increase, according to NAEB, was largely attributed to the good price on the international market averaging $3.38 (Rwf2, 873/kg) compared to $2.43/kg in the same period last year.
