Kayonza
growers
tea factory
The Kayonza Growers Tea Factory is 100% owned by the smallholders. It has gone from strength to strength since Cafédirect starting buying from them in 1998. The factory is located in the extreme south of the Rukungiri district, near the border with Congo.
The Kayonza Growers Tea Factory is a business collectively owned by nearly 4,000 local farmers. Farmers in this region grow tea and a variety of other crops. With Kayonza being the only tea factory in the region, it’s a real life-line for farmers and their families as it provides them with the means to process and market their tea crops.
Cafédirect’s Fairtrade premiums in this region have to date funded road drainage, maternity and health units, a satellite phone (in an area with no telecommunications this was essential), extra classrooms in schools and an orphanage.
Thanks to your purchases of Teadirect the growers have continued to develop high quality teas that go into Teadirect.
If you would like to try their tea, but can’t find it in your local store visit our online shop.
Stephanie Kwibuka
Data supervisor, Kayonza Growers Tea Factory Ltd, Uganda
Stephanie graduated from Bugema university with a degree in business adminstration, and now works as data supervisor in the accounts department at Kayonza Growers Tea Factory.
She says she enjoys being part of a team that works closely with tea farmers, policy makers and staff on improving communication, and is currently engaged in developing the company’s website: this is crucial, she believes, to strengthening the links between buyers in the tea industry and smallholder producers in the Kanungu district.
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