The Rwanda government has said its revenues from tea exports increased by 12 per cent in the 2019/2020 fiscal year.
Revenues from tea exports in the country increased by $10m from $83 million (about Rwf80 billion) in 2018/2019 to $93 million (over Rwf90 billion).
Statistics from the National Agricultural Export Development Board (NAEB) also indicated that tea export volumes increased by 7 percent from more than 30,500 tonnes in 2018/2019 to more than 32,600 tonnes in 2019/2020.
Revenues in the latest period that ended in June 2020 showed a fall of 5% from $88min 2017/2018 to 83 million in 2018/2019, despite a 10 per cent rise in tea export volumes.
Pie Ntwari, the NAEB Communication Officer said that factors which drove up the revenues include relatively good prices at the international market last year compared to the previous one, as well as increased production.
“There are new tea plantations which started giving yield. This enabled factories to process more tea for export,” he said, adding that Rwanda has 18 tea processing factories.
In December 2019, NAEB announced that tea farmers will be getting more income following a move allowing them to earn 50 per cent of the price at which a kilogramme of processed tea is sold on the international market.
This reflects 10 percentage points higher compared to 40 per cent that they were receiving on a kilogramme before.
