January 16, 2009 - Controversy is brewing over the tea prices offered to farmers in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania, prompting the leading mainland opposition party to draft a motion seeking government to force the major tea buying company in the area to increase its purchase price.
The motion, The EastAfrican has been exclusively informed, is to be tabled when parliament convenes on January 26.
It will among other things enjoin the government to instruct the Wakulima Tea Company to purchase tea from the Rungwe Tea Co-operative Society (Ruteco).
A source in the Chama cha Maendeleo na Demokrasia Tanzania (Chadema) said all Members of Parliament from the party would convene this week to draft the motion.
The issue at stake is the move by Wakulima Tea Company to purchase green tea leaf at Tsh120 ($0.088) per kilogramme instead of Tsh135 ($0.10) per kilogramme and its refusal to purchase tea from Ruteco, opting instead to buy raw tea from the Rungwe Smallholder Tea Growers Association (RSTGA), which farmers claim is owned by senior government officials and businessmen.
Said Amour Arfi, Member of Parliament for Mpanda Central on a Chadema ticket, told The EastAfrican last week that the party would seek an explanation of why the government is not recognising the co-operative society even though it has lately been advocating the revival of co-operative societies.
The opposition legislator said the motion would also seek information from the government on the people behind the RSTGA.
“Chadema will seek government intervention to increase the prices of tea given that the prices of some agriculture inputs have also increased,” he said.
According to Mr Arfi, the price of fertiliser went up from $10 to $40.7 per 50kg bag from 2007-2008 while herbicides (prometryn) rose from $4 to $48.1 per 50kg bag over the same period.
A highly placed government source told The EastAfrican that the Rungwe Tea Co-operative Society, which was established by the government, was mandated by the Parastatal Sector Reform Commission to operate the tea factory, but instead the factory was given to Tatepa and RSTGA in unclear circumstances.
The issue of the ownership of the factory was first raised with the government on May 10, 2005, and the Ministry of Food Security, Agriculture and Co-operatives assured the farmers that their claim was genuine. Nevertheless, the issue has yet to be resolved
Rostam Aziz, chairman of Tea Board of Tanzania, said in an exclusive interview in Dar es Salaam last week that the government has its own mechanism of regulating green tea leaf prices to allow market competition.
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