Tanganda Tea Individual Feature

7/31/2019 Tanganda Tea Individual Feature

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Tanganda Tea Cmpany,

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nywhere you go in the world

you can always nd a shop

selling tea.Tea was discovered

in China over 5,000 years ago and its

popularity quickly spread.

Today, it is in most oces and homes

and millions enjoy a good cuppa.

I you wondered who to thank odds

are you neednt look urther than the

Tanganda Tea Company, Zimbabwes

biggest tea grower and producer.

It is the best-selling brand o tea in thecountry and central Arica and it exports

bulk tea leaves all over the world.

Its even claimed that six out o every

ten cups o tea drunk in Britain every day

are brewed rom a blend containing leaves

rom Tangandas estates.

Thats a mean eat.

As the name gives away, we are

primarily involved in the production,

packaging and distribution o tea, saysMD Tim Fennell. Our major brand is

Tanganda but we have many.

Unortunately, times in the tea trade

have been tough o late.

Sure, there is always a huge demand,

but low prices have been prevailing on the

world market.

It has seen Tanganda diversiy into

new crops - avocado and macadamia nut

arming in particular - to increase earnings.Why have we gone down this road?

Well, tea production costs have been

rising, yet prices on world markets have

been stable, making the crop marginal.

Frequent power outages, poor weather

and increasing labour costs have also

aected production. As a result, we saw it

viable to diversiy into other crops.

The cost o labour in particular remains

a signicant challenge and discussionswith the relevant authorities or a

Tanganda Tea CmpanyfoCus food & agriculture

3www.southafricamag.com


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ZFC Limited is thedominant manuacturer anddistributer o Fertilisers andAgrochemicals in Zimbabweand at the same time amajor player in the regionalmarket. ZFC Limited andTanganda Tea Companyhave a long standingbusiness relationship

dating back two decades.For the Tanganda croppingenterprises that includeTea, Coee, Macadamiaand Avocado, ZFC Limitedhas provided Fertilizersthat include Tea Fertilisers,Coee Blends, Compounds,Fruit Fertilisers; Gypsum;Lime and Foliar Fertilisers.Agrochemicals also providedto the estates are in the ormo Fungicides, Herbicides

and Insecticides.

Apart rom Fertilizers andAgrochemicals, ZFC Limitedalso provides a strongAgronomic Support Team oagronomists that work handin hand with estate managerson all the Tanganda TeaCompany estates andassist with product backup services, the servicingo customer enquiries, soil

sampling as well as researchand development o newproducts that can be o useon the estates.

ZFC Limited continuouslythrives to improve its productquality by working hand inhand with Tanganda TeaCompany and as a result othe existing strong businessrelationship between thetwo companies; ZFC Limited

has established substantialbusiness opportunities withTanganda Tea Company.

ZFC Limited and

Tanganda Tea Company

It takes two!

sustainable wage are being

progressed, Mr Fennell says.

Its an ongoing challenge.

Wages have increaseddramatically, perhaps to the

point that it starts to become

a little bit o a worry, as its

a viability issue. Thats one

reason that we have to grow

more protable crops.

Power is another problem.

Were now so expensive in

world terms or electricity.

Tanganda Tea Companyowns and operates ve estates

covering 2,600 hectares tea

with additional land being

developed or the new crops.

The Group is divided into

two main operating divisions

- Agricultural and Beverage.

Fennell says it plans to put

several hundred hectares

under macadamia nuts andavocados and coee.

We identied macadamia

nuts, avocadoes and coee

as the best and most

complimentary crops. Whatweve done is weve basically

embarked on the rst

stage o our diversication

programme - the building

o nurseries and growing o

seedlings. That is obviously

quite a process but we hope

to have about 700 hectares

o macadamias planted, 300

hectares o coee planted and500 hectares o avocadoes

planted by March 2013. We

intend to expand that.

The rst 150 hectares

o coee that we planted

last year will come into its

rst small crop in 2014. By

2015 that project will be in

ull swing. The avocadoes

we planted this year andobviously weve got major

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plantings that will take place between August

and December ater our winter and those will

come into what I would say is a meaningul

production, probably 2017. The macadamiaswill only really come into proper production in

2018-2019.

We do have areas under tea that are not

particularly suitable rom a terrain and water

point o view so there is a possibility that we

could remove some tea and increase the

other crops, but not as a policy to remove tea.

Currently we have 2,600 hectares o tea. We

may bring that down to 2,400 and simply take

out marginal areas.O course the other thing that we would

always look at, which is not easy in Zimbabwe

at the moment because o the various land

issues and so on, but we would denitely

look at purchasing more ground in order to

develop more o the new crops.

He expects Tanganda to reap massive

benets rom diversiying into those crops.

As I said, we are increasing our hectarage

or macadamias and are embarking ona substantial development o avocados,

and this will also be included in our out-

Since 1969, G&W Industrial MineralsZimbabwe has been producing and supplyingdolomitic and calcitic agricultural limes tomany estates around Zimbabwe includingTanganda Tea Estates or the production o tea(camellia sinensis), macademia, coee andother crops. On average Tanganda Tea Estateshas been using not less than 2 500 tonnes olime annually.

Benefts o lime on Tea Quality

Tea is a widely consumed beverage. However,

recent studies reveal that there were anincreasing number o cases o tea productsexceeding the maximum permissibleconcentration (MPC) usually (2mg per kg).Tea Lead (Pb) contamination is an issueaecting trade and consumer condence. Rootuptake o Pb could contribute signicantly toPb accumulation in tea leaves due to strongacidity o many tea garden soils.Agricultural lime is a very important cropinput, which is oten overlooked by manyarmers with the consequence that theiroverall yields continue to decline over time.

Addition o CaCO3 signicantly increases soilpH thereby decreasing soil extractable Pbby up to 32%. The Pb concentration in neroots, stems and new shoots o tea plants issignicantly reduced ater liming the soil. Asa result tea quality is enhanced and consumersatisaction increased.

Other Benefcial Eects are:

Improved ertilizer use eiciency byyour crops. Use o ertilizer alonewithout lime will result in poor ertilizeruptake and reduce the economic beneit o

using ertilizer. Application o lime improves the availability

o soil nutrients to plants. At low pH, thesenutrients will remain insoluble and henceinaccessible to crops.

An important point to note is that theeectiveness o agricultural lime on yoursoil depends on its purity, its neness and itsneutralizing value.

G&W Industrial Minerals (Pvt) Ltd are proud toinorm you that our lime is purer, ner and o

highest neutralizing value, it will give armershigh value or money.

G&W Industrial Minerals andTanganda Tea Company


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7www.southafricamag.com

grower programmes. O course we have an

extensive tea out-grower scheme involvingsmall-scale armers around our estates. We

expect good returns on this investment

these crops are pretty good money spinners

i theyre done properly.

Fennell is certainly hoping Tanganda can

prot rom its pastures.

These are very much complementary crops,

especially in terms o the time o year that

theyre reaped. When youre only harvesting tea

youre incredibly busy rom December to Juneand quiet or the rest o the year. With these

new crops well get a 10-month infow o cash

over 12 months because o the variation o the

reaping times. It no longer means the labour

orce is busy or a certain period and then

theres no work or them. This is the heart o the

complimentary crops.

Tanganda, which was ounded in 1930 and

is based in Harare, is a subsidiary o Meikles

Arica Limited.Meikles was the rst company to comply

with Zimbabwes indigenisation regulations.

Tanganda certainly has an incredible history.

The rst tea was planted in the Chipingearea in 1924 and the Tanganda Tea Company

that we know today purchased that company

in 1943. Its development and so on has

basically been going on since then.

And it has a bright uture.

Although the tea industry has been in

the doldrums or the past ew years we

actually see a bright uture or it and the

main reason or that is the development

in the tea drinking market in places likeChina and the ability o people to be able

to aord to be able to drink a cup o tea,

says Fennell.

Not in the short-term but in the medium-

term we hope to see hopeully a big growth

in world tea consumption which will be ar

greater than production and thereore the tea

industry as a whole will become viable as we

go orward. END

To learn more about the Tanganda Tea

Company visit www.tanganda.co.zw.


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Tel: +263(0)4703786Fax: +263 (04) 705785

Email: [email protected]

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ENQuIRIEstphn: +44 (0) 1603 343367fx: +44 (0)1603 [email protected]

suBsCRIPTIoNsc: +44 (0)1603 [email protected]

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