Tea exports end 2018 at highest level ever

Uganda’s tea exports in the year ending 2018 recorded a 15 per cent jump, the highest performance ever, which industrial players attribute to good production.

A total of 71 million bags of tea were exported, up from 60 million kilogramme bags average exported the previous consecutive years.

In an interview with Prosper mgazine, the General Secretary Uganda Tea Association, Mr George William Ssekitooleko, said: “Good production as result of increased acreage is responsible for this performance.”
According to Bank of Uganda’s records, the value of Uganda’s tea exports have been increasing for the last three years.

Value
The statistics updated early this month show that for the year ending 2018, the country exported tea worth $88.8m (Shs324b) in value up from $79.7m (Shs290b) earned in 2017. In 2016, the tea exported was valued at $71.5m (Shs268b) realised in 2016.
On average, Uganda exports about 60,000 tonnes indirectly through Mombasa auction as Kenyan tea through 27 exporting companies.

Despite the country’s good performance last year, tea exports through the Mombasa auction in the first few weeks of 2019 suffered a decline according to the latest East African Tea Export Auction report released this month.
The second large exporter sold a total of 1.43 million kilogramme bags down from 1.46 million kilogramme bags exported the same period last year. This saw a slight 2 per cent drop in volumes.

However, overall records from this auction, show that the regional export volume registered a 13 per cent increase. A total of 11.2 million kilogrammes of tea were exported compared to 10.1 million that were exported last year, around the same time.

Five East African member states actively participated in the auction out of the nine countries on the auction list.
These included Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and Burundi.

Direct exports
Commenting on direct exports, the managing director of Uganda Tea Development Agency- a conglomeration of three-factories (Igara, Kayonza and Buhweju), in an earlier interview with Prosper magazine, said: “UTDA is increasingly moving into direct exports to markets such as Pakistan, United Kingdom and recently showcased in the United Arab Emirates (Dubai).”

OTHER COUNTRIES
The auction report by the East African Tea Export Auction showed that Kenya exported over 8.7 million kilogrammes bags more than the 7.8 million it exported the same time last year. This indicated a 10.4 per cent increase in exports.
Rwanda exported 475,543 kilogrammes bags, up from 464,502 kilogramme bags exported the same time last year.