Tea Producers Seek Govt Protection
MUTARE — The country’s tea blenders and packers are facing stiff competition from cheap imports, which now constitute 25 percent of the local market, the Financial Gazette’s Companies & Markets can report. The local tea sector, dominated by Tanganda Tea Company, Eastern Highlands and Arda Katiyo Tea, produces 15 000 tonnes against local consumption of 4 000 tonnes.About 3 000 tonnes are supplied to the local market while the remainder is exported. Local blenders and packers, who used to dominate the market, have lost a 25 percent market share to imports. Tanganda Tea Company finance director, Henry Nemaire said foreign players were putting 1 000 tonnes on the shelves.
Nemaire hastened to point out that the tonnage is huge and can affect operations of local players if government does not move to protect indigenous suppliers.
“The foreign market is posing a serious threat because it now constitutes about 25 percent of the market, which is 1 000 tonnes on our market.
“That’s a lot of tea because Zimbabwean teas have enjoyed a large share of the market but these imported teas are unnecessarily taking space. We are wasting foreign currency importing teas, some of which have come from Zimbabwe as bulk tea anyway,” he said.
Tanganda alone produces 10 000 tonnes per annum and exports 75 percent while they supply the remainder on the local market. Nemaire, who is also the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) national vice president, said if imports continued to increase on the local market, chances are local players would be pushed out of business. He urged government to protect the sector as it has done to the dairy, cooking oil and sugar industries.
“We need measures to protect local blenders and local tea packers. We submitted lots of proposals as the tea sector to the Ministry of Industry but surprisingly there were no measures that were extended to the tea sectors,” said Nemaire.
Tea producers asked government to explain why they were excluded from protection measures. Ministry of Industry and Commerce acting regional director Phenias Skanda acknowledged the challenge facing tea blenders and producers but said most of these were due to poor advertising and packaging by local manufacturers. “Imported teas, mainly from South Africa, are posing a serious threat to local manufacturers and risk putting them out of business. But this challenge is largely because most foreign suppliers are better advertisers and package their products in more appealing ways than our local players,” said Skanda.
He said some companies owned tea (plantations) that were last planted before 1950, which now attract very low yield and need to be uprooted and replanted.
Arda Katiyo Tea, which closed in 2012 with 100 hectares of tea, has not harvested the field up to date.
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