Rwanda’s tea industry was last week recognised for producing best quality tea in the international Gold Medal Tea Competition held in America. The recognition was announced during the 6thAnnual North American Tea Conference in San Antonio, Texas.

Northern Province-based Rwanda Mountain Tea Ltd, and Gisovu Tea Company limited in Karongi district emerged winners.

Rwanda Mountain Tea Ltd scooped two awards for exhibiting best tea leaves in the black category, while Gisovu emerged winner of the Taylors of Harrogate tea supplier of the year.

Organised by the Tea Associations of the USA and Canada, the Gold medal tea award competition is held annually and seeks to boost tea quality and standards along value chain across the world.

It is also an opportunity for global stakeholders in the tea sector to brainstorm on accomplishments and how to address the challenges faced.

"And for us as Rwanda, it is always an opportunity to discuss the future of tea and see how we can tap into the various global markets through sharing our experiences with other world players,” Bela Nyirahuku, the marketing and sales manager Rwanda Mountain Tea told The New Times, yesterday.

And this particular competition provided us with a good opportunity for networking among the participants, especially on how to increase our future sales in the American market, Nyirahuku added.

Nyirahuku also noted that the competition was an opportunity for local tea producers to enter into competition with other tea producers from different parts of the world.

Rwanda’s tea export earnings increased by 27 per cent to over $6 million in July despite an 18 per cent drop in the export volumes. The country exported 1.8 million kilogrammes during the month, down from 2.2 million kilogrammes in July last year.

National Agricultural Export Board (NAEB) targets to increase tea export receipts to $94.9 million by 2018, up from $65.7 million in 2013.

According to Issa Nkurunziza, the NAEB head of tea division, quality is a must if the country’s tea is to attract better prices on the international market.

Under the PRICE project, the export body has so far trained over 100 facilitators to help realise this objective.

The three-year project is expected to benefit 6,000 smallholder farmers, and help boost quality along value chain.

Efforts to increase the quality of green leaf form are already paying off and according to Nkurunziza the quality has improved from 54% in 2014 to 69% in 2015.

We also plan to have at least 16 million tea seedlings planted in 2015-2016 and to conduct training of trainers who are expected to train more than 4700 farmers, Nkurunziza added.

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