Tea Sippers

Mozambique is making a bid to become a real tea growing country again. In news from our source today, the Director of Agriculture, Momed Vala, says the provincial government will try to relaunch production of tea. This would employ about 20,000 to 22,000 people in the area.

Back in the 1970s, the state owned company, Emocha, employed many people and the region was a “significant” exporter of tea. However the area was destroyed by the apatheid rebels, Renamo, in the 1980s and most of the tea plants were destroyed. Even today, only about 7000 hectares grow tea out of the 39,000 that could.

There is still a lot of work to be done, not the least of which is replanting all that acreage. Would-be tea producers will also have to organize themselves and associations be set up. Guess time will tell if they can actually pull this off to become the “significant player” in the world tea market they want to be.

Source: http://www.afriquenligne.fr/news/africa-news/mozambique-province-to-re%11launch-tea-production-200805305413.html

Tags: tea news