The latest of SORWATHE’s many achievements is being adjudged the BEST OVERALL EXIBITOR 2010 at the 13th Annual Rwanda Trade Fair 2010 held recently and seen in the photo is Mr Cally Alles – Director General just after receiving the trophy.

At the beginning of 2010, Sorwathe was also adjudged as “Investor of the Year for 2009” at the prestigious Rwanda Development Board awards. This award which many aspire to achieve was based on the profitability, forward and backward linkages with local SME’s, job creation, demonstration of Innovation and Technology transfer, Corporate Social Responsible projects, being a role model and reinvestment into business to sustain growth. In addition to this main award we were placed as second runner-up in the “Exporter of the year-2009” category.

SORWATHE is currently the only ISO 22000:2005 and FAIRTRADE certified, ETHICAL TEA PARTNERSHIP participant and RBS – (Rwanda Bureau of Standards) product certified. It is also ISO 9001:2008 certified.

Sorwathe has many first time achievements in Rwanda, the main are as follows. We are the first to build a New Orthodox Tea Factory in Rwanda which is automated and could manufacture both Orthodox and Green Tea. In addition to this we have introduced technology to the Tea industry in Rwanda such as Fluid Bed Driers, Invertors, 3T Stalk Extractors, Enclosed troughs etc. We are also converting 116 hectares of tea into Organic Tea which is another first in the Tea Industry of Rwanda.

Tea Tourism is another of our projects and we have our Guest House with a panoramic view. We have introduced field and factory tours to those who are interested in learning more about Tea.

Sorwathe produces Black and Green Tea, both CTC and Orthodox and White Tea. Currently it is “In Conversion” for Organic. The Annual production is around 3 million kilos of Black Tea which is 15% of Rwanda’s production. In 2007 Sorwathe produced 3.66 million kgs of Black Tea.