Rumbidzayi Zinyuke
Manicaland Bureau
Small-scale tea growers in Honde Valley have expressed interest in taking over the old Katiyo Tea Estate processing factory, which will enable them to add value to their crop so that they get better returns.

Low prices have threatened the survival of more than 1 000 tea growers in the Valley, who are now considering moving to more lucrative crops like bananas.

The farmers can only sell their produce to Eastern Highlands Plantations (EHP) after the Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (arda) closed its Katiyo factory years back.

According to Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union tea commodity chairman, Mr Charles Sanhanga, the old Katiyo tea factory was likely to be auctioned and they were hoping to place a bid.

“Value addition could be the only way to save small-scale tea production here as farmers would get more money for their crop,” he said.

“Currently we are only getting $8,03 per kg which translates to $40 per kg of processed tea. The same tea is going for more than $100 for 62,5 grammes, so these prices are not viable.

“When arda shut down the factory in 2007, we hoped that as small-scale growers, we would get the opportunity to use the factory to process our tea but that did not happen and we are afraid that if the parts of the factory are auctioned, we will lose out.”

He said small-scale farmers had played a significant role in the establishment of the Katiyo factory hence they should get an opportunity to run the factory at a different site.

About 1 000 hectares of land are under small-scale tea production in Honde Valley, although about half of that have been abandoned.

Mr Sanhanga said if the factory is set up for smallholder farmers, they would have enough capacity to run it.

“If we revive the abandoned fields, we will have more than enough tea to run that factory viably and we are really hopeful that arda will hear us out and give us the chance to make a meaningful impact on the tea industry,” he said.

For years, small scale farmers have played a crucial role in the production of tea, which has improved the livelihoods of thousands of families.

During peak season (November to April), the active farmers in the area produce an average of 200 000kg per month.

Honde Valley farmers produce some of the best tea in the world with 95 percent of the finished product from EHPL earmarked for export markets.

The farmers have complained that high cost of labour and inputs does not correspond with the low prices they are getting and have been trying to diversify into value addition.