eBusiness Weekly
Kudzanai Sharara
Tanganda Tea Company, owned by listed entity Meikles Limited, is the most efficient tea operation in the world, financial director Henry Nemaire revealed this week during an interview on Capitalk FM.
In its last published set of results for the half-year ended September 30, 2018, Tanganda’s revenue went up by 22 percent to $15,7 million from $12,9 million achieved during the six months ended September 30, 2017.
Tanganda, which started in the 1920s as a tea growing experiment, has the country’s biggest hectarage under tea at 2,244ha, avocado 458ha and macadamia 779ha.
Nemaire said there are a lot of good things going on in the country, which are ,however, being overshadowed by economic challenges that are currently bedevilling the country.
The country’s long overdue economic take off is being stifled by an extensive and growing list of problems including but not limited to unmanageable foreign and domestic debts, cash and liquidity shortages, dependence on food imports, a serious trade imbalance, disabled air and rail transport services.
But Nemaire believes this should not blind Zimbabwe from appreciating some of its achievements.
He disclosed that the yields that are achieved at the company’s tea estates cannot be matched anywhere in the world.
“We have a yield of 4 500kg per hectare, which is higher than what the Chinese do, which is an average of 1 600kg per hectare. If you go to Kenya East, whether its James Finlay (Mombasa) or Williamson Tea Kenya, the average corporates in are producing an average of 3 000kg per hectare.”
Kenya is the biggest exporter of black tea in the world and in 2018, the east African nation produced 492,99 million kg of tea.
“If you go to India, to the evergreen region, they are producing an average of 3 000kg per hectare and that’s the highest yielding Indian tea operation.”
India is the world’s second-biggest producer of tea and exported 28 million kg in 2018.
Despite the fact that tea produced elsewhere in the world dwarfs the quantities produced in Zimbabwe, Nemaire said the yields produced in the eastern highlands are much higher. He also boasted that local operations are the best in terms of mechanisation.
“Let me tell you, a Zimbabwean tea operation is the most mechanised operation in the world. That’s why I am saying we are running the most efficient operation in the world.
“If you go to Kenya, it is a big power in terms of production output, but in terms of mechanisation their corporates are around 50 and 70 percent compared to Tanganda Tea Company, Ariston and Eastern Highlands, all at 100 percent.”
Nemaire said the Zimbabwe tea operations is the most efficient in the world “because we harvest 300kgs per employee, but when you do hand plucking in India, Kenya and China you are plucking between 45 and 65 kgs a day.”
Opportunities across the border
Tanganda has been offered opportunities to start similar operations in neighbouring Mozambique but the offer has not been taken on board as it requires significant capital outlay which takes years before the benefits can be enjoyed.
There are opportunities to plant tea in Mozambique, the government of Mozambique is always calling to say come and help us to plant tea in Mozambique, of course it’s a ten-year gestation period and already that’s in itself a barrier to entry, Nemaire said.
“So you can see that people who are likely to plant tea are those who are already in the business and we need to protect the players, the tea growers, even the forest and timber plantations need to be protected
“We need to protect what we have and not allow settlers all over tea and plantation companies, that is irresponsible.”
Nemaire’s remarks comes at a time another local company with plantations in the country has lost hope that it will get back its land let alone protect its plantations.
Last week, Zimbabwe Stock Exchange listed entity Nampak bemoaned the loss of some of its land due to land invasion, despite such land falling under BIPPA agreements.
Nampak chief executive officer John Van Gend told shareholders the company was not making any meaningful headway in obtaining control over estates that fell victim to land invasion. This is in spite of assurances by Government around the intention to ensure BIPPA agreements are honoured.
Van Gend said his company has written to the authorities but this has not yielded any tangible results despite promises by the Zimbabwean government to use BIPPAs as a way of attracting foreign direct investments.
