But South Africans, who consume 23mkg of tea a year, can from this week sample a new brand of 100% locally produced black tea when Midi, produced by Tshivhase Tea Estates near Thohoyandou, Limpopo, is launched nationally.
The tea is grown on land overseen by King Kennedy Tshivhase, whose clan name, Midiyavhathu, also provides the brand name. It is the product of a successful venture between the Limpopo government and the villagers around Thohoyandou. They revived the defunct Sapekoe Tea Estate after the foreign owners walked away from the business, leaving 6400 workers jobless and surrounding tea plantation areas depressed.
Bigman Maloa, head of the Limpopo agriculture department, says Sapekoe, established in 1973, grew tea on land that it used free of charge and sold it in bulk to centres in London and Egypt, among others. Sapekoe was forced out of business by rising input costs in 2004.
Maloa says Limpopo's then agriculture minister, Aaron Motsoaledi (now national health minister), instructed him to investigate the feasibility of reviving the industry.
“We were eventually routed to tea experts from Kenya attached to the Kenya Tea Development Agency, who did a biological survey of our plantation.”
Kenya is Africa's biggest tea producer and the world's third-biggest. “The experts found all the tea plants in good health, though overgrown, and told us there was no need to irrigate the plantation. That saved us 30% of costs.
“On their advice we changed the farming system and they also advised us to stop selling in bulk and to rather add value by selling branded tea bags,” Maloa says.
The estate employs about 2500 people, of whom about 2200 are tea pickers in the 1077ha plantation.
Maloa says R160m has been invested in the project. “The community trust will share in profits and this will fund schools, clinics, roads and scholarships — including bursaries for students who study tea production.”
Donald Mudau, the factory manager, says the farm is expected to yield about 3mkg of black tea a year.
Supermarkets have undertaken to stock Midi tea, which will be priced on a par with leading brands. Market-research respondents said they would buy Midi if its quality matched imported brands.
Source: Financial Mail
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