We all know Ethiopia for its high-quality coffee and rich culture.
Also for the Africa Union headquarters and of course the late Ethiopian Emperor, Haile Selassie renowned for modernising Ethiopia and helping to establish the Organization of African Unity (now African Union)
Surprisingly for an autocratic dictator who was eventually overthrown by his army, the late Emperor is also regarded as the messiah of the African race by many Rastafarians. It is said Ras Tafari Makonnen became Emperor Haile Selassie, the last reigning monarch of Ethiopia's Solomonic Dynasty as his Dynasty is traced to King Solomon of Israel and the Queen of Sheba.
Many of us don’t associate Ethiopia with tea. But unknown to many, the Assam type of tea was introduced in Ethiopia in 1927 in the Oromia region. Well, the tea industry has struggled over the years with quality, insufficient research, weak marketing and other issues. And it was not until around 1989, when proper commercial production started in Wushwush and Gumaro areas, and later quickly spread to other parts of the country.
During a recent visit to the tea estates in Wushwush and Gumaro, I observed that nature favours green leaf growth in both areas with huge potential for expansion. For example, Wushwush tea plantations are located at 1920 metres above sea level, with an average rainfall above 1800 mm per annum
Temperature ranges between 270C in hot months to 70C during colder months, and it has a ragged topography with well-drained fertile deep soils. The tea plantations there are relatively young, with the oldest about 30 years of age. The planted clones are reasonably high yielding though yet to be optimally exploited.
The same goes for Gumaro tea plantations with an average rainfall of 2100 mm per annum, which is fairly distributed with a temperature range of 110C minimum and a maximum of 270C. The soil pH range of 5.2 to 5.8, is within the ideal pH range for tea growing. This means that Gumaro tea plantations are perfectly within the ideal soil and climatic conditions required for commercial tea production.
The soil, the topography and the agro-climatic conditions with better-organised skilled human resources for green leaf production and harvesting operations, would do wonders in optimising production there. Most of the Ethiopian tea estates are operating under capacity with poor performance in production, which results in high cost of production and low profits.
The same observations were made at the factories where production in both quality and volumes was not being optimised.
Ethiopia currently produces about 10 million kilogrammes of made tea. This could be further optimised and could easily yield a tenfold greater harvest, overtaking the tea production of many East African countries. Indeed, Ethiopia has the potential to produce one of the best teas from East Africa, if proper husbandry and processing standards are adopted.
Kenya and other East African tea-producing countries should take notice from Ethiopia on tea production. The government of Ethiopia recently embarked on a graduate programme to promote tea growing among university graduates. Graduates are allocated land to grow tea and are given, by their government, all the technical and capital support to bring the newly established tea bushes to the point of harvest.
This is expected to turn into huge tea estates and new factories. The youthful tea growers with a passion for enterprise are expected to pursue higher productivity and quality resulting in higher production. This will have a domino effect on the existing tea farms in terms of productivity and quality to define the new tea industry in Ethiopia.
Once tea plantations start maximising leaf production, land expansion and factory modernisation, the Kenyan tea industry and East Africa at large will be changed forever. Ethiopia only exports 20 per cent of its current production with two major tea producing companies accounting for about 98 per cent of the entire country’s production.
These are the interesting developments of the Ethiopian tea industry that the entire East African tea industry must pay attention to.