Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/556538
18 STiR tea & coffee industry international / Issue 4, 2015 (August/September) AZERBAIJAN Azerbaijani Tea Factory Demand for locally produced tea has increased in the past few years in Azerbaijan and in July Azernews reported the opening of a new tea factory with a processing capacity of 12 metric tons of tea leaf a day. "Astarachay was established in 2010. It produces a variety of agricultural products but the company is mainly focused on tea," according to the newspaper. The company intends to double production from its 400 hectare garden near the city of Astara. Azerbaijan's leaf harvest was 474.2 metric tons in 2014, resulting in about 95 metric tons of made tea, according to the State Statistics Committee. Tonnage is expected to increase to 500 metric tons of leaf in 2015 with 251.8 metric tons already collected through June, up 14.2% compared to the same period in 2014, according to Azernews. Azersun Holding, founded in 1991, is the largest of the country's tea companies with gardens in Astara and Lenkeran and in the country of Sri Lanka from which it imports a large quantity of tea. Russia is Azerbaijan's largest tea supplier at 134 metric tons. The country one day hopes to produce enough domestic tea to meet demand. KENYA Biomass Briquettes Withering is an energy-intensive step typically fueled by wood. It takes 10,000 cubic meters of wood, the equivalent of 30,000 trees, to produce 2.5 million kilos of tea. In tea growing regions this can lead to deforestation. Even under the best of circumstanc- es, when plantations have sufficient acre- age to maintain sustainable forests, the cutting of trees disrupts wildlife and spews black smoke for miles. Six months ago the managers at Makomboki Tea Factory, located about 50 miles from Nairobi, switched wood to briquettes of processed waste biomass from local sources. The briquettes, made of rice husks, sawdust, cashew shells and macadamia, burn clean and cost less than wood. "We have not used a single cubic meter of firewood in the last six months," said factory manager John Gitau. Makom- boki is the first of 66 Kenya Tea Development Authority factories to make the switch. Gitau believes other managers will follow. Manufacturing the briquettes is a project of the Living Earth Foundation, a UK-based charity assisting Kenya tea growers. Funding for the briquette production plant was provided by the European Commission and Marks & Spencer, a British retailer. Briquettes to fire the furnaces for a year will cost an estimated $295,000. Swapping firewood for sawdust will save $247,000 and save 60,000 trees. RWANDA Orthodox Tea Production While Cyohoha-Rukeri Tea Estate, owned by Joe Wertheim's Tea Import- ers, continues to produce organic orthodox back teas, other factories in Rwanda are also installing orthodox machinery so that they too can diversify from their traditional CTC blacks. Rutsiro Estate, which was privatized in 2014 when acquired by Rwanda Mountain Tea Ltd., is certified organic and expected to start orthodox manufac- ture of black and green teas soon. During a visit to Rutsiro, minister of agriculture and animal resources Dr. Gerardine Mukeshimana encouraged smallholders to plant improved seeds in order to maximize their crop, increase local agricultural production, and raise their earnings. The government hopes to lift all Rwandans out of poverty and aims to become a middle income country by 2020. Tea growers have asked for high yielding clones to help increase productivity. Rukeri has set the trend by manufacturing quality orthodox tea from its own leaf and from leaf bought in from local smallholders. Learn more: rwandamountaintea.com NEPAL Tea Factory Run by Women The Sandakphu Tea Factory in Ilam, eastern Nepal, was established by Chandra Bhushan and his wife Twistina to allow villagers to process their freshly harvested tea and produce some unusual and high quality white, oolong, green, and black teas for export. One mission driving the factory has been to give women a fair chance in the work place, but in a country where female workers are still seen as inferior, attempts to promote women to posi- tions of authority presented a major challenge. However, after long and complicated discussions and negotiations, Bhushan and Twistina managed to get their vision across to the local community and the factory is now run by women – a real achievement for all involved. All field based finance is controlled by women and teas are made by the factory's female technical hand with support from male machinery experts. Rwanda workers using orthodox pluck