eBusiness Weekly
Tawanda Musarurwa
Tanganda Tea Company Limited, the largest producer, packer and distributor of tea products in Zimbabwe, has added another feather to its leaf of having the best average yield per hectare across all tea producers.
This means that Tanganda is the world’s most efficient tea producer.
Tanganda managing director Henry Nemaire, told Business Weekly that the improvement in efficiency is a direct result of automation of the company’s tea manufacturing processes.
“Tanganda Tea Estates is currently the most efficient tea producer in the world due to the automation processes that we have implemented. We are currently producing 5 000 kilogrammes per hectare,” he said.
“The second best producer is currently producing 3 000 kilogrammes per hectare.”
The company’s various tea products include: Tanganda Tea, Tips Tea, Joko Tea, Stella Tea, Fresh Leaves Tea and Silver Tea.
“On the tagless tea bags range, we pack Tanganda, Tips, Stella, Healthi Green and Moringa. On tagged tea bags, we have Tanganda Special Blend, Tanganda Catering as naked tea bags and Special Blend, Healthi Green and Moringa,” he said.
In 2014, the group invested US$4 million in new tea packing machinery, placing it in a position to compete with other global tea packers.
The advanced machinery, which was acquired from Germany and Italy, is largely operated remotely from a user interface such that there is no handling of product and materials ensuring fully hygienic packaging.
According to management, such remote machine operations reduce chances of injuries to workers as people do not come into contact with moving machine parts.
The factory is certified to ISO 9001:2015 (QMS) and is gearing up for certification to ISO 22000 (FSMS).
The group packages around 200 tonnes of tea monthly.
Although Tanganda Tea Estates are highly efficient, Zimbabwe is still far from being ranked among the top 10 tea producers in the world.
Largely believed to have originated in China, tea is majorly grown in four countries: China, India, Kenya, and Sri Lanka.
The other top producers include Vietnam, Turkey, Indonesia, Myanmar, Iran and Bangladesh.
According to Allied Market Research (AMR), the global tea market was valued at $46,392 million in 2016, and is projected to reach at least $67,751 million by 2023, growing at a CAGR of 5,5 percent from 2017 to 2023.
“The global tea market is majorly driven by the health benefits associated with consuming tea and increase in awareness related to carbonated drinks among people,” says the AMR study.
“Moreover, increase in caf culture, rise in disposable income, change in tastes of people and introduction of additional healthy ingredients in tea by different market players are the other factors that fuel the market growth.”
But Tanganda’s tea (and other horticultural exports) have been put at risk with the recent implementation of Statutory Instrument 157 of 2018, which Nemaire said increases their export licence requirements by around 2 300 percent.
