00:00The highest price Uganda's tea has fetched internationally is just $1 per kilogram.
00:14But prices have been falling for the last five years, the steepest drop in the region,
00:19leaving farmers frustrated and processors struggling with high production costs.
00:25Poor farming methods and weak post-harvest handling are blamed for the low quality that is pushing prices down.
00:34To help farmers, the government is offering an 80% subsidy on fertilizers to boost yields.
00:42The management of the plucking, the management of the weeding, initially even included in the nutrition,
00:49was how you apply the fertilizers, all that has to be taught to the farmers.
00:53And once that's done, they must manage the plucking and manage the post-harvest handling of that leaf before it gets to the factory.
00:59Uganda is now turning to specialty teas in high demand in Asia, hoping to tap into more lucrative markets.
01:08Tea remains one of Uganda's top exports, earning over $70 million a year, but unstable prices threaten the sector's survival.
01:18Besides the black tea market that used to be in Mombasa, the auction, now they have introduced an orthodox auction.
01:27And I can report that for the start, the prices that they are fetching at the orthodox auction are very, very comfortable for those factories that are making them.
01:37On average, they are averaging about $3 per kilo.
01:42And even if for the kind of leaf that we have right now in Uganda and we got $2 for that orthodox teas, that will be a very great leap.
01:51A small rebound in prices to the $1 mark is encouraging processors to raise quality and diversify.
01:59But competition is stiff. Imported specialty brands are flooding Uganda's shelves, leaving local teas struggling to compete.
02:09In fact, Uganda imported tea worth $625,000 last year, despite being a major producer.
02:18We have many people who are selling spices and herbs.
02:21But there are very few packers who have considered creating blends with these spices and herbs, just to add a bit of, you know, to make something different, something appealing.
02:32Lately, tea is becoming functional as a beverage because tea is competing with so many herbs.
02:39People are drinking flowers and are calling it tea.
02:42We need to see it being promoted in many ways, and that would be through the packers.
02:47The crisis has now caught the president's attention.
02:51He has directed the Ministry of Agriculture to tighten regulations on green leaf quality in the hope of raising standards and keeping Uganda's tea industry competitive.
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