Tea Farmers in Rwanda

There are different forms of tea farmer organizations functioning in Rwanda. Recent statistics show that there are 13 established tea farmer organizations presently in active operations. The total membership of these organizations is 30 334. These organizations command a total land area of 8 600 ha.

The first organization was formed in 1964 in Rushaki-Bungwe and Umugi wa Byumba districts in the Byumba province. It has been named Coopthe Mulindi with 1 000 members. This cooperative was set up initially to supply the scared labour for the estate and later with development of smallholder tea it was reorganized to supply green leaf to Mulindi factory. Coopthe Mulindi has been registered in 1996. Though it was initially supported by OCIR-Thé, it is self managing since 1997. The members have 867 ha of tea area.

The two most recent tea smallholder organizations are Cothenya in Nyaruguru-Nyakizu district in Gikongoro province supplying green leaf to Mata factory and ATP in Kanama-Nyamyumba district in Gisenyi province which supply green leaf to Pfunda factory. Both these organizations are not yet registered but are self-managing since January 2003. The former has a membership of 1 580 with a total farming area of 361 ha, while the later has 2 563 members with a land area of 786.