The Kibeho tea factory under construction
In 2017, Unilever, a British company, started the project of tea cultivation and tea factory construction in Nyaruguru with a partnership of Sir Ian Wood and now the process is nearing completion.
At the beginning, Unilever Tea Rwanda signed an agreement with the Government of Rwanda in May 2016 to invest over $30 million over the four years in developing two large scale tea sites in the sectors of Kibeho and Munini as well as a processing factory.
So far, the planted tea has grown and now the construction of Kibeho tea factory is at good progress.
According to Félix Mutai, who is in charge of constructing this Factory, the construction work was initiated in 2022, and he hopes to accomplish their work by the end of 2023.
“This factory will have three tea processing lines, and will have the capacity of processing 150 tons of tea leaves per day,” he said.
Through its capacity of processing many tons, it is planned that this factory will be able to supply ten thousands of tons at the international market.
It is also planned that between 30% and 40% of tea will be harvested in the Factory’s farms, while between 60% and 70% will be harvested in the farms of tea growers who are increasing the area under cultivation with the help of the SCON project.
Initially, the factory will also employ 200 workers, who will be increased as the factory expands.
The partner of Unilever in the expansion of tea farming and constructing the Tea Factory, Sir Ian Wood, visited the ongoing construction of this factory on May 24, 2023, and requested that Rwandans strive to take care of tea properly, so that it becomes more popular on the international market.
It is expected that Kibeho Tea Factory, now under construction by Ekaterra Tea Rwanda will costs more than five million Euros, that is, more than Rwf 6 Billion.
So far, the largest tea factory in Rwanda is Mulindi, which has the capacity to process 80 tons of tea leaves per day, and produce five thousand tons of tea per year, while in Nyaruguru District, the largest one is Mata that is able to process 53 tons of tea leaves per day and take four thousand tons of processed tea to the market.
