Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/641418
18 STiR tea & coffee industry international / Issue 1, 2016 (February/March) DETHLEFSEN & BALK Enjoy the advantages of using an all-in-one supplier with a selection of more than 600 standardised tea varieties, 50 manufactory coffee qualities, an exclusive confiserie assortment and a world-wide leading range of accessories. Visit us at the HOTELEX 2016 March 29 - April 1 in Shanghai, China Hall: E7 - Booth: A03 Dethlefsen & Balk GmbH Hermann-Wüsthof-Ring 16 21035 Hamburg Germany Phone: ++49 (0)40 73 10 73-0 office@db-hh.de www.dethlefsen-balk.de Dethlefsen & Balk Inc. 1005 N. Commons Dr. Aurora, IL 40506 USA Phone: 001-(630)-851-8549 info@dethlefsen-balk.us www.dethlefsen-balk.us Your competent partner for: Tea | Coffee Accessories | Confiserie bottom line too. In the case of KTDA factories, savings are passed directly to the smallholders who own the factories, which means better livelihoods for thousands of farmers!" During his time in Kenya, Whittle worked with Hilary Rono, energy manager for KTDA, Bernard Njoroge, special program coordinator ETP, and Patrick Kamari, ETP energy consultant and other KTDA regional engineers. charcoal and clearance of land for cattle grazing. Further destruction of the forest will exacerbate disruption of rainfall patterns and climate change. The forest area is important for the production of rice and tea and provides smallholders with the opportunity to sell their tea into international markets. Local communities and tea compa- nies need the water from rivers regulated by the forest and continued tea cultiva- tion is dependent on maintaining a stable local microclimate. KTDA and other stakeholders recognize that they need to work together to save the forest. RWANDA Rwanda tea exports rise Volumes of tea exported from Rwanda in the first 11 months of 2015 increased to 22.7 million kilos, up from 20.7 million kilos during the same period of 2014. Revenues also increased by 40% to $66.3 million, up from $47.3 million recorded for the same period of 2014. Rwanda sells its teas at the Mombasa auction and prices for Rwandan teas averaged $2.92 per kilo, a slight increase from the average price of $2.29 a kilo in 2014. In its efforts to improve the quality of green tea, Rwanda's National Agriculture Export Board (NAEB) has been working with tea farmers and tea cooperatives to train them in best agronomic practices and in the handling of freshly plucked leaf. Issa Nkurunziza, head of the tea division at NAEB, explained that NAEB's PRICE project has trained selected tea farmers in the handling of green leaf and those farmers will pass on their newly-acquired skills to more than 6,000 tea farmers across the country. This three-year project is part of the farmer field schools initiative that targets tea growers. NAEB intends to distribute 43 million tea seedlings to farmers by the end of 2017. SRI LANKA Celebrating 150 years The Sri Lanka Tea Board (SLTB), Colombo Tea Traders' Association and other members of the Ceylon tea industry are planning large-scale celebrations of 150 years of Ceylon Tea in 2017. A number of tea related events will be held throughout the country from February to August 2017. These include a Ceylon Tea Expo, a tea convention, tea festivals, tea work- shops, seminars and other related events and the industry will be inviting mem- bers of the international tea world, including tea associations, tea councils, and tea boards, to take part in the Saving the Mau Forest Five of the tea factories owned by the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) are working in close collabora- tion with the Dutch Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH) and the Kenya Forestry Service to save the Mau Forest. The Initiative for Sustainable Landscape (ISLA) is applying principles of environ- mental conservation to reduce the effects of climate change by encouraging farmers to adopt more sustainable farming practices that both protect the environment long term and also improve productivity on the farms. In recent years, approximately a quarter of the Mau forest has been lost due to extraction of timber, wood fuel, Kenya's Mau Forest The mountains of Rwanda