Made tea production drop by 8 per cent in 2015/16

By Mnaku Mbani

Made tea production for the financial year of 2015/2016 decreased by 3,121,141 kg equivalent to 8.7 percent, from 35,749,769 kg recorded in 2015/2015 to 32,628,628 kg produced in 2014/2015, an overview of tea production 2015/16 released by Tanzania Tea Board has said. Main reasons for outstanding decrease in production werethe prolonged dry spell particularly in Rungwe District and unreliable rainfall distribution in Mufindi District which are major tea producing Districts in the country.

According to the overview, monthly made tea production trend shows clearly that production was not substantially low in all months from July to November in 2015 and in April and June 2016.

Consequently, total production of made tea for the respective financial year decreased by 8.7%. This was mainly caused by prolonged drought in those months in most tea growing areas.

tea production in Northern zone stood at 5,921,869 kg in 2015/2016 as compared to 5,819,069 kg produced in 2014/2015 a slight increase of 102,800 kg equivalent to 1.8%.

Tea production in Southern zone was 26,706,759 kg in 2015/2016 as compared to 29,930,700 kg produced in 2014/2015 representing a significant decrease of 3,121,141 kg equivalent to 8.7%. The decrease was attributed by low and unreliable rains in Rungwe and Mufindi Districts.

Southern Zone’s contribution to the total production was 82% and 84% as compared to 18% and 16% contribution in production of the Northern zone in 2015/2016 and 2014/2015 respectively.

Estate tea subsector produced 22,815,677 kg in 2015/2016 as compared to 23,830,273 kg produced in 2014/2015decrease of 1,014,596 kg equivalent to 4.3%.

On the other hand, Smallholder tea subsector produced 9,812,951 kg in 2015/2015 as compared to 11,919,496 kg produced in 2014/2015 a significant decrease of 2,106,545 kg equivalent to 17.7%.

Contribution of Estates’ subsector to the total production was 70% and 67% as compared to the contribution of 30% and 33% of  smallholder tea subsector in 2015/2016 and 2014/2015 respectively.

During the period under review, tea production by districts (Table 4) showed that the major tea producing districts of Mufindi, Njombe and Rungwe recorded decease in production.

Tea production significantly decreased in Rungwe and Mufindi Districts by 1,858,421 Kgs (26.2%) and 1,133,495 Kgs (7.3%) respectively. Reasons for decreased production in the districts are as stated above.