Burundi Tea Exports Dropped 16% to 750 Tons in July, Board Says
Tea exports from Burundi, which relies on agriculture to generate most of its foreign-currency earnings, dropped 16 percent in July, the Burundi Tea Board said.
Shipments declined to 750 metric tons from 895 tons a year earlier, Remy Ndayininahaze, head of exports at the Bujumbura- based board, said in an interview today. Export earnings increased to $2.23 million from $1.92 million, he said.
Cumulative exports in the first seven months of this year totalled 5,258 tons, compared with 4,780 tons a year earlier, with income increasing 24 percent to $14.9 million, he said.
Burundi relies on tea and coffee to generate 90 percent of its foreign-exchange earnings, according to the CIA World Factbook. Yields in the East African country have fallen from more than 9,000 tons in 2001 because of an insurgency that displaced small-scale growers, who account for 80 percent of production.
To contact the reporter on this story: Desire Nimubona in Bujumbura via Nairobi at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Richardson at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.
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