Localizing tea cultivation in Sudan: an end to the phrase (premium Kenyan tea)
27 April, 2025
PortSudan(Sudanow)- After the last recent crisis and the decision of the Sudanese government to ban the import of tea commodity from the country Kenya in protest against its hosting of a so-called founding conference to declare a parallel government for the terrorist militia and its allies in Sudan, this decision, which is considered an economic weapon, has consequences in finding an alternative that suffices the consumer's need by filling the shortage and ending the phrase (premium Kenyan tea) This boycott worked to encourage the localization of tea cultivation and production in Sudan by paving the way for a new sector in the national economy and promoting agricultural production and exploiting the rich natural resources enjoyed by Sudan so he can tear the bill.
Sudanow met with the economist Dr. Haitham Mohamed Fathi to talk about Sudan's potential to localize the cultivation and production of tea and self-sufficiency, He said after previous experiences, many successful ones, I never ruled out the possibility of successful tea cultivation in Sudan,
Where Sudan is characterized by its geographical climatic diversity and its various agricultural lands, fed by rivers and fresh water underground, in addition to seasonal rains in different parts of the country, and Sudan contains diverse agricultural regions, as well as the Sudanese farmer who is considered one of the most skilled and most experienced farmers in the world in agriculture, this crisis has created a movement within the agricultural and investment circles to produce tea in Sudan, and here the role comes to the Ministry of Agriculture and the Agricultural Research Authority, which must remove the dust from previous experiences and work seriously to activate them to make Sudan one of the countries producing and even exporting tea.
After experiences have proven this, we only have to stand on these hypotheses and work to implement them on the ground and remove all obstacles and challenges and overcome the special interests (the market mafia) who do not want this product to be produced locally and Sudan to become a serious competitor in the region, they want it to be only a consumer.
Dr. Haitham Fathi said that cultivating the area needed to produce our tea needs provides the foreign currency needed for imports as long as the environment is suitable. We must study the experiences of some countries that preceded Sudan in the field of tea cultivation, such as Kenya, India, Malawi, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, and Turkey. With the difference in quality.
Kenyan tea is different from Turkish tea, and Turkish tea is different from Ugandan, Indian and Sri Lankan tea, so the product may not be accepted internally and will not compete globally in exports, which may be a reason why investors do not want to cultivate it, so Sudanese efforts must be combined between the government and the concerned authorities to achieve this goal
The talk may be theoretically scientific, but it doesn't make economic sense for investors in terms of profitability
Therefore, the government must sponsor this project until the emergence of clear and promising positive results in order to motivate investors to localize it in the country, as expanding the cultivation of tea would be a radical solution to the issue of the huge import gap, especially since it is a profitable crop with a rewarding return, if tea cultivation is localized, there will be a reduction in the import bill and reduce the demand for dollars, and the local tea industry is still under the captivity of currency crises that can hit it with a sudden failure at any moment. Especially after linking such products to the political and diplomatic factor between Sudan and the producing countries, which helps to increase their prices.
Dr. Haitham Fathi concludes his talk to Sudanow, "There are those who say that importing tea from abroad is less expensive than producing it locally, and this is not true, no matter how high the cost is, it is much less than the import bill.Tea was not known in Kenya and does not exist in Africa, but it came with the British occupation by taking Indian workers, who are adept at growing tea, and introduced it and localized its cultivation in Kenya. Therefore, Sudan can apply this theory, especially since it has natural and human resources, and previous successful experience, which helps it to do so.
It is noteworthy that there are successful experiences of tea cultivation in the Blue Nile and Kordofan regions
In the early 1990s, according to Sudanow sources, during a scientific trip for students of the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Khartoum to the eastern mountains of the Kordofan region (Abu Jubaiha, Rashad, Abbasiya).One of the programs of the trip was a lecture on the tea planting project in the region (Tiba Al-Zaiter) of the eastern mountains of the region, and that the experience was successful by all measures, but the project was deliberately thwarted by parties with interests that do not want a competitor to Kenya in the region and that Sudan remains a consumer only, this experience is now back in memory and became a motivation to apply it on the ground and other experiences.
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