About - Uganda Tea Association

UTA is the umbrella body of tea companres and individuals who are in the business of growing,
processing and trading in tea in Uganda. lt was established in 1948 as a voluntary association to
discu.ss common problems affecting the tea industry and find solutions. UTA went into hibernation
when most of the owners of the estates left the country in 1972 and in 1973 the Government put
in place the Uganda Tea Authority. The Tea Authority was charged with both the duties of
producing and marketing Uganda’s tea. With the change in Government policies and the return of
the tea estates to their original owners the need arose to revive the Association.

Hence in the 1990’s members came together and created a secretariat which was manned by
officials from the then Uganda Tea Authority, they later realized that there was a need to separate
the two organizations and this culminated into the appointment of a full time Executive Secretary
following the re-registration of the association as a private company limited by guarantee in July,
L999. For all the years till 1999 the voluntary association had not been registered. UTA is now a
Non-Profit Organization registered as Company Limited by guarantee, coordinating and advocating
for the interests of members. UTA collects, collates and circulates production and trade statistics
and information on tea

The Association had for many years been the platform where members expressed their views and
concerns about the development of the Tea Industry in the country and its involvement in the
broader global trade. Through the Association, members lobby government and other concerned
organizations in furtherance of their interest in the industry, lt also represents members in a
number of foras both local and internationalthereby allowing members to concentrate on running
their tea plantations.
All Ugandan companies processing and exporting tea through the Mombasa tea auction market
are members of UTA. The tea sector in Uganda has three categories of companies.

HISTORY OF TEA IN UGANDA

Tea growing in Uganda was introduced by the British Government from India in 1900 and commercial cultivation began in the late 1920s, which developed on private sector large scale plantation scale. In 1950s, government setup state-owned tea plantations with processing factories managed by a government agency; Uganda Development Corporation (UDC). In 1966, government established a corporation to support smallholder tea growing. Uganda Tea Growers Corporation (UTGC) was established with an act of parliament to promote smallholder tea growing and construction of tea processing factories to serve these farmers. Following political upheavals between 1966 and 1986, there was a drastic degradation of investments in the tea sub-sector. A number of tea plantations converted to tropical rainforests with many tea processing factories and associated infrastructure ending dilapidated. When the current NRM government took over power in 1986, initial tea industry recovery efforts were invested into rehabilitation of abandoned tea plantations and tea factories. Subsequent industry development embarked on increasing the industry size with promotion of more tea acreage from 21,000 hectares in 2001 to the current 44,000 hectares of tea. This was largely achieved through a strategy of free tea seedlings distribution to smallholder tea farmers.