Rwanda’s tea factory fetches highest price in history at Mombasa tea auction

RWANDA – Nyabihu Tea Factory majorly owned by Rwanda Mountain Tea Ltd, fetched a record price of US$7.22 (about Rwf6,624.89) per kilogramme for its processed tea at the Mombasa auction this month.

The Mombasa trading is the second-largest black tea auction centre in the world after Colombo, Sri-Lanka where a dozen producers from the region sell their tea.

At the 45th auction of the East Africa Tea Trade Association (EATTA), the company’s ‘BP1 grade’ – the highest quality – earned the highest bid two times in a row, reports New Times Rwanda.

Thushara Pinidiya, the Director of Nyabihu Tea Factory said, “We follow basic, but best principles of manufacturing. Farmers also play a big role because they supply us with tea leaves whose quality determines the quality of tea we produce.”

The recent highest bid in October last month at the Mombasa auction was earned by the same tea processing company at US$6.64 (about Rwf6,096) per kilo.

Last month, the Rwandan teas were sold to UK, Pakistani, Egyptian, Kazakhstani, Afghanistan and Middle East markets among others.

Last year, the company sold 1.5 million kilos of tea with Pinidiya saying that they anticipate to sell 1.8 million kilos and 2 million kilos this year and 2020, respectively.

Nyabihu Tea Factory is based in the Nyabihu District, Western Province with tea plantation covering at 1,043.54 hectares.

According to the National Agricultural Export Development Board (NAEB), last month Rwanda sold 1,968,267 kilos of tea at an average price of US$3.07 per kilo at the Mombasa tea auction.

It was followed by Kenya which sold the biggest volume of 33,971,386 kilos at an average price of US$2.33 per kilo.

The same period last year, Rwanda sold 1,708,711 kilos at an average price of US$2.72 per kilo followed by Kenya that had sold 34,098,480 Kilos at an average price of US$2.42.

The country’s tea export volumes have been increasing, but international tea prices have been growing affecting Rwanda’s export revenues.

Tea exports revenues decreased by 5 per cent from $88 million in 2017/2018 to 83 million in 2018/2019. However, exports volumes increased by 10 per cent from 27 tonnes to 30 tonnes.

Nyabihu Tea Factory is based in the Nyabihu District, Western Province with tea plantation covering at 1,043.54 hectares.