Posted on July, 19, 2016 at 09:30 am
By Dorothy Nakaweesi
Uganda is destined for a breakthrough into direct tea exports to Iran; a development experts say will brand the country.
According to information from Uganda Export Promotion Board (UEPB), direct buyers of Ugandan tea have been identified from Iran and plans to make this happen are in advanced stages.
In an interview with Daily Monitor, UEPB’s executive director, Mr Elly Twineyo, shared: “We have identified direct buyers for Ugandan tea in Iran. Iran used to consume coffee but now they consume tea.”
He said according to their discussion with Iranian buyers who were recently in Uganda, they have a capacity to annually import more than 10,000 metric tonnes of tea from Uganda.
Annually, Uganda exports about 60,000 tonnes indirectly through Mombasa Auction as Kenyan tea. This arrangement has denied the country’s a tea brand image at the international market.
“As UEPB, we are looking for direct exports of Uganda’s tea besides the Mombasa auction. Our tea goes to Mombasa but some countries like China insist that they want a certificate of origin-a document used in international trade attesting that goods in a particular export shipment are wholly obtained, produced, manufactured or processed from Uganda.
Kampala Auction
Twineyo shared that the other alternative they want to explore is establishing a Kampala Auction.
“This will not stop us from sending tea to Mombasa. Can we get the direct markets because almost 85 per cent of our tea is sold at the Mombasa auction,” he shared.
He said besides Iran, other tea markets for Uganda are Sudan, South Sudan, DR Congo and Turkey.
Tea production
Production boost. In an interview with this newspaper, Naads executive director, Dr Samuel Mugasi, said: “We have procured and planted 48 million tea seedlings and this will boost production.”
Source: The Monitor