East African Agri-Business, a member of East African Holdings, has its well-designed strategic plans to be a major investor in agro business in Ethiopia, both in agricultural products and process industries. Chewaka tea estate is only one step towards this objective.

Chewaka Tea Estate

Chewaka situated in the scenic beauty of the Highlands in the South West of Ethiopia at an altitude of 6000 ft above sea level with an average rainfall of 2300mm is one of the most suitable topography to grow high quality tea by any world standard.
During 1995, East African Agri Business established Chewaka tea estate with an initial investment of 87million birr in a total developed land area of 870 Hectares covered under tea and fire wood plantation, and infrastructure including arable internal roads. The estate proposes to increase its planted area by another 650 hectares during the next phase of expansion.Nearly ten clone varieties of tea bush are grown in Chewaka of which cuttings for four varieties were obtained from the Gumrero tea garden and other six varieties brought from Kenya. All these varieties are of very high quality known for their high yield potential and resistance to pests and other infections.

                    

A modern single line the tea factory with an installed capacity of 600 – 700 tons of made tea per annum was commissioned at Chewaka tea estate during De. 2001. The automatic online process factory produces high quality CTC ground tea that is comparable with Kenyan and Ceylon tea in the international markets. As the planted area and leaves recovery are expected to increase gradually, additional production facilities including installation of a second line is considered as immediate priority.

Product Profile and Market

Quality of different grades of tea produced in Chewaka estate is considered in par with the best produced anywhere else in the world. Our overseas buyers consider Chewaka tea comparable to the best Kenyan tea. 70% of our tea find export routes to Pakistan, U.A.E. and Sudan Regularly.
From the time we launched our tea in Ethiopian markers in Dec. 2001, it has made its impacts in the domestic markers and today we enjoy about 35-40% market share in Ethiopia. Domestic markets that are highly price conscious were contend with medium grade blended tea, which prevented us from giving the highest quality to the average market. But as we see a change in consumer preferences, we will be launching the premium grades for the domestic markets soon.

Engaged primarily in blending and repacking of branded tea for both domestic and export markets, has a long standing experience of 15 years in the business. Two prominent brands, Black Lion and Good Morning, produced in this factory command 75% market share in the country.

Earlier this industry depended solely on outsourcing tea from the local growers or imports. But as the group has developed its own tea garden it is now able to have better controls, both on quality and strategic planning. These advantages have opened doors to few export markets of repute. The industry is now engaged in synthesizing its actions to correlate the tea gardens output with the blending and packing to derive maximum benefit.