CASE STUDY
The Mabale and Mpanga Growers’ Tea Factories are two grower owned tea factories based in Western Uganda, supporting approximately 2,500 smallholders.
The two factories together produce over five million kilograms of Black CTC Tea annually. About 95% of this tea is currently sold to the export market through the auctions in Mombasa. The rest of their production is sold to Teadirect (part of Cafédirect), local traders and blenders.
The factory stakeholders had the idea of developing the ‘Rwenzori Blend’. As part of their initiative to reduce the dependence on the Mombasa auctions, the two factories have decided to join forces and further develop the local market for their teas. Up until now the factories have not had the means or capacity to access the local market.
The Lorna Young Foundation is supporting the factories to purchase a second hand tea-packing machine and to receive the technical and business training they need to maximise this opportunity. The factories will blend, package and sell small packets of their tea to local communities, when they travel around the area collecting the tea crop from growers.
In this way, the factories will take the first important steps to developing a sustainable local market for their produce and reduce their dependency on exporters and the volatile export market.