Africa-Press – Mauritius. An inception workshop on the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Report on the Tea Sector opened, this morning, at Le Labourdonnais Hotel, Port Louis, at the initiative of the Ministry of Agro-Industry and Food Security and the FAO.
The Attorney-General and Minister of Agro-Industry and Food Security, Mr Maneesh Gobin, and the FAO Representative for Mauritius, Seychelles, Comoros and Madagascar, Mr Charles Mbuli Boliko, were present. The Director of Trade and Market from the FAO, Mr Boubaker Ben Belhassen, intervened virtually from Rome.
In his address, Minister Gobin recalled that Government has enlisted the participation of the FAO with the objective of increasing the production and quality of the Mauritian tea as well as carving a niche market for the Mauritian tea in the competitive global tea market and obtaining higher prices on the global market.
He also made an overview of the sector and underlined that the area under tea cultivation has increased by 20%, and that the yield per “arpent” has doubled from 4,000 kg to 8,000 kg. Furthermore, Minister Gobin dwelt on the various schemes put at the disposal of tea planters.
They include: the Winter Allowance being paid since 2017 to tea growers when there is pruning and no plucking; and one-off grant payment for the purchase of equipment for tea harvesters. He observed that annually tea production is around 1,500 tonnes while local consumption is 1,800 tonnes.
To that end, he said that Government is encouraging an increase in the area of cultivation and added that the Ministry of Agro-Industry and Food Security is distributing new tea plantlets to cooperative societies and planters.
The World Bank has produced a Strategic Plan for the sugar sector which occupies less than 50 000 hectares of land, and the Plan is at the stage of implementation, he stated. As regards the non-sugar sector, a Strategic Plan is also being implemented, he added.
As for Mr Belhassen, he stated that there is a need to bring about transformational changes in the tea sector in Mauritius and said with the appropriate legislative framework, new technologies, innovation, and resilient agricultural practices, the transformation of the tea sector will become a reality.
For his part, Mr Boliko underlined that globally, tea is one of the most important cash crops and plays a significant role in rural development, poverty reduction and food security in exporting and developing countries.
It is a principle source of livelihood for millions of smallholder producers, he added. Tea export earnings help to finance food import bills, supporting the economies of major tea-producing countries, he said.
According to Mr Boliko, tea can make a significant contribution in the three pillars of sustainability, namely inclusive economic growth, social progress, and environmental protection. Tea Sector Project
The Government of Mauritius plans to bring the sector back from the brink of collapse and capitalise on its unique island characteristic as well as on the opportunities presented from rising demand for Mauritian tea from both the local and global markets.
It is within this framework that the Ministry of Agro-Industry and Food Security requested the FAO to undertake a study to identify the drivers which led the tea industry into decline and what dynamic transformative actions are needed to reverse this trend.
The findings of the study include the need to strengthen institutional, legislative and regulatory frameworks; the need to develop a climate change adaptation plan and strategy; shortage of labour and ageing tea growers; absence of tea standards and product innovation, old infrastructure, high cost of processing and high dependence on electricity and fossil fuel; low technological adaptation; and the necessity to build a strong tea branding based on the island natural capital.
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