Addis Ababa, Oct. 25 - Ethiopia has doubled tea production to more than 6,500 tonnes in the last five year, meeting growing local demand and exporting to new customers in Europe and the Middle East, a senior official said on Thursday.
"We have become self sufficient," Esayas Kebede, the head of coffee, tea and spice development at Ethiopia's Agriculture Ministry, told Reuters, adding that almost all tea leaves for local consumption used to be imported from neighbouring Kenya.
"The country has managed to double tea production since then 3,500 tonnes annual production then to 6,525 tonnes today."
Ethiopia has also earned $900,000 so far in the current season from exports to the Middle East and Europe, Esayas said.
The government has identified 500,000 hectares of land where soils, humidity and rainfall are ideal for tea growing, he said.
In July, it leased 10,000 hectares (almost 25,000 acres) in the west to one Indian company, Kanan Devan Hills Plantation of Karalla, and Esayas said the hunt was on for more investors.
Another Indian firm, Lucky Exporters, was also in talks with the government to set up a 5,000-hectare plantation, he added.
Ethiopia wants to boost tea production to diversify exports away from its major cash crop, coffee. It is Africa's top coffee grower with an estimated annual production of 320,000 tonnes.