Rwanda’s tea has won five awards including the overall award at the fourth Africa Tea Convention and Exhibition that is taking place in Kampala, Uganda from the 26th to 28th June 2019.
The Rwandan tea factories were announced as the award winners on June 26, 2019 for their best quality tea in the recent East African tea competition. The overall winner of the tea competition was awarded to Rwanda Mountain Tea. Other Rwandan factories that produced award-winning tea are Kitabi BP 1, Nyabihu PF1, Gisovu PD, and Kitabi D1.
The Rwandan tea prices in the recent auctions remained high compared to other tea from the region. For instance, one Kilogramme of Rwandan tea was at 5 USD while it was 2.7 USD and 1.5 USD for Kenyan and Ugadan tea respectively.
The three-day event has been organised by the East African Tea Traders Association and was attended by over 500 participants from around 25 countries, majority coming from the African Continent.
The event gathered different tea stakeholders such as tea producers, brokers, buyers, blenders, packers, researchers, among others, across the world to discuss crucial aspects affecting the tea farmer such as the environment, process & production and the consumer, among others.
Rwanda produces one of the best quality tea in the world. The country’s tea industry consists of an annual production volume of over 25,000 metric tons of dry tea. The area under tea cultivation is approximately 26,000 hectares.
As of the fiscal year 2017-2018, the total exported tea quantity amounted to 27,824,246 kg, an 11% increase from the previous year. Tea export grew by 18%; generating around USD 88 million.