Profile
Mabale Growers Tea Factory Ltd is located on the lower slopes of the Rwenzori Mountains near Fort Portal, one of Uganda’s main tea growing areas. It incorporates a tea processing factory and two tea estates that were previously owned and operated by the state but were abandoned during the chaos of the Amin regime.

They have since been renovated, rehabilitated and privatized under the government’s Smallholder Tea Programme which also saw the ownership pass to an association of 950 shareholders, mostly small-scale tea farmers who supply the factory with their green leaf tea.
Apart from Fair Trade and a few local sales, most of the made (processed) tea is sold to international buyers via the Mombassa auction.

Mabale supplies Tea direct to, Traidcraft and Tesco own label blends. As well as a fair price equal to or higher than the auction price, each kilo attracts a Fair Trade premium of _0.50. The agreed priority of the elected Premium Committee is to provide better health and education services and improve the general living standards of the farmers.

They concluded that one of the best ways of achieving these aims would be by increasing farmers' incomes. They have consequently invested premium funds in training in agricultural techniques that improve the quality of the tea increase the price received. Investment in nurseries and tea seedlings mean that farmers are also able to increase the numbers of tea trees on their plots.

It is imperative that freshly picked green leaf tea reaches the tea factory in good condition within a few hours of being picked. Fifteen leaf collection sheds have been built at roadsides so that farmers can store their green leaf in cool, dry conditions, whatever the weather, while waiting to be collected by the factory’s lorries. In many cases this has also meant constructing or improving access roads to supplier tea farms. This of course benefits the wider community by helping other farmers get their produce to market.

A new workers’ facility is under construction at the factory – toilets, changing rooms, rest room and canteen, in partnership with the government, the farmers have constructed a healthcare unit with dispensary at the factory.
The area the tea farms are located in is very rural with poor infrastructure. Barely 1% of homes have electricity or running water. Most people get their water from shallow wells, springs or bore holes but less than 50% have easy access to clean water.

Eighty percent of the factory’s shareholders are small-scale subsistence farmers with less than two hectares who also supply the factory with their freshly picked green leaf tea. Their farms are located up to 30km from the factory and they depend on tea for 50-60% of their cash income. Mabale competes with 11 privately-owned tea factories in the area to buy in green leaf from local growers.

The factory employs 101 permanent and 107 temporary workers. It also owns the Nyamasoga and Mparo tea plantations which employ 45 permanent and 73 temporary workers. A big investment was made in 2004 to install a new production line that was needed to
Keep up with increasing volume and quality requirements.