Bujumbura - Burundi's obsolete tea processing plants were undermining the quality of its black tea, costing it crucial export revenues, Callixte Ntamutumba, the commercial director of the Burundi Tea Board, said yesterday.
Earnings from tea dropped 13 percent in the first nine months of 2005 compared with the previous season, he said.
Statistics from the East African Tea Trade Association showed that Burundi had sold only 2.4 million kilograms of tea since the start of 2005. Kenya, which is one of the world's top three producers of black tea, had sold 104.2 million kilograms during the same period.
Eighty percent of Burundi's tea is auctioned at the Kenyan port of Mombasa, while only 20 percent is sold locally.
"Our machines are getting tired," Ntamutumba said. "This is negatively affecting our tea quality and costing us a stake on the market in the region."
Machinery used in Burundi's five state-owned tea factories was 20 years old and faced continuous breakdowns, even after repairs.
Burundi's overall tea production is expected to drop slightly in 2005 due to minimal use of fertilisers and neglect from demoralised peasant farmers. Ntamutumba said average tea export prices in 2005 had fallen more than 21 percent.
"We are in a dilemma because our banks cannot issue long-term loans and international financial institutions are sceptical of Burundi's future."
Tea and coffee are the leading foreign exchange earners for Burundi, which is struggling to emerge from more than a decade of civil conflict. Burundi's top tea grades are mainly exported to Pakistan, Britain and Oman.
- Reuters