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Uganda Tea
Favorable climate and soil conditions enabled Uganda to
develop some of the world's best quality tea. Production
almost
ceased in the 1970s, however, when the government expelled
many
owners of tea estates--mostly Asians. Many tea farmers
also
reduced production as a result of warfare and economic
upheaval.
Successive governments after Amin encouraged owners of tea
estates to intensify their cultivation of existing
hectarage.
Mitchell Cotts (British) returned to Uganda in the early
1980s
and formed the Toro and Mityana Tea Company (Tamteco) in a
joint
venture with the government. Tea production subsequently
increased from 1,700 tons of tea produced in 1981 to 5,600
tons
in 1985. These yields did not approach the high of 22,000
tons
that had been produced in the peak year of 1974, however,
and
they declined slightly after 1985.
The government doubled producer prices in 1988, to
USh20 per
kilogram, as part of an effort to expand tea production
and
reduce the nation's traditional dependence on coffee
exports, but
tea production remained well under capacity. Only about
one-tenth
of the 21,000 hectares under tea cultivation were fully
productive, producing about 4,600 tons of tea in 1989.
Uganda
exported about 90 percent of tea produced nationwide. In
1988 and
1989, the government used slightly more than 10 percent of
the
total to meet Uganda's commitments in barter exchanges
with other
countries. In 1990 the tea harvest rose to 6,900 tons, of
which
4,700 were exported for earnings of US$3.6 million. The
government hoped to produce 10,000 tons in 1991 to meet
rising
market demand.
Two companies, Tamteco and the Uganda Tea Corporation
(a
joint venture between the government and the Mehta
family),
managed most tea production. In 1989 Tamteco owned three
large
plantations, with a total of 2,300 hectares of land, but
only
about one-half of Tamteco's land was fully productive. The
Uganda
Tea Corporation had about 900 hectares in production and
was
expanding its landholdings in 1989. The state-owned
Agricultural
Enterprises Limited managed about 3,000 hectares of tea,
and an
additional 9,000 hectares were farmed by about 11,000
smallholder
farmers, who marketed their produce through the parastatal
Uganda
Tea Growers' Corporation (UTGC). Several thousand hectares
of tea
estates remained in a "disputed" category because their
owners
had been forced to abandon them. In 1990 many of these
estates
were being sold to private individuals by the departed
Asians'
Property Custodian Board as part of an effort to
rehabilitate the
industry and improve local management practices.
Both Tamteco and the Uganda Tea Corporation used most
of
their earnings to cover operational expenses and service
corporate debts, so the expansion of Uganda's
tea-producing
capacity was still just beginning in 1990. The EEC and the
World
Bank provided assistance to resuscitate the smallholder
segment
of the industry, and the UTGC rehabilitated seven tea
factories
with assistance from the Netherlands. Both Tamteco and the
Uganda
Tea Corporation were also known among tea growers in
Africa for
their leading role in mechanization efforts. Both
companies
purchased tea harvesters from Australian manufacturers,
financed
in part by the Uganda Development Bank, but mechanized
harvesting
and processing of tea was still slowed by shortages of
operating
capital.
Data as of December 1990
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