1.0. Meeting Between Kenya Revenue Authority and  EATTA

In the last update from the secretariat we informed you that we had written to KRA seeking an appointment to raise concerns on various issues of concern to the tea industry.  We obtained an appointment for 20^th March 2013 and together with a few members of the trade, we went and met with the Senior Deputy Commissioner for Southern Region as well the Line Managers responsible for issues of concern to the tea industry.

The issues discussed in the meeting were;

• Delay in cancellation of VAT bonds

• Delay in reactivating archived T 810 forms

• Lack of staff to release customs holds of containers

The outcome of our discussion was as follows:

a). Delay in cancellation of VAT bonds

Some of our members have been following up with KRA for cancellation of bonds going back 7 years. KRA informed the people in the meeting that part of the problem maybe exporters who fill the certificates of exports documents manually instead of the required online process. The Deputy Commissioner in charge of port operations committed to look into the matter and in a further follow up meeting held on Thursday 4^th April 2013 a way was found to sort out the outstanding bond cancellation for one of our members.

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 East Africa Tea Trade Association  and TMEA East Africa Inaugurated a Capacity building initiative of Tea Industries in East Africa to implement recognized International Standards(Food Safety Management Systems)

The East Africa Tea Trade Association is excited about this partnership with TradeMark East Africa which is expected to build the capacity of the tea industry in East Africa.

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The annual Kenya Taxpayers week was officially opened on Monday 17th, at the KRA times towers ground. The event was opened by the Kenya’s finance Minister, Mr. Uhuru Kenyatta, who thanked the taxpayers for their continued support and compliance to tax regulations, pointing out that the taxpayers’ week was a clear demonstration of the positive mutual partnership enjoyed by KRA and the taxpayers which has seen the increase in tax collection since the inauguration of the event in 2003. He commended the taxpayers for actively contributing to the government’s development programs and assured citizens that the government was working to stabilize the economy.

The East African Tea Trade Association is delighted to announce the 2^nd Africa Tea Convention & Exhibition will be held  on 28^th - 30^th August 2013 at the Kigali Serena Hotel - Kigali, Rwanda. This will be the second Tea Convention & Exhibition to be organized by East Africa Tea Trade Association and it is expected to be a global event for tea industry. The 1^st event was very successful and was attended by major tea importers and consumers of the African tea all over the globe

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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.

East African Tea Trade Association is the premier body representing the interests of tea producers, tea buyers, tea brokers, tea packers and tea warehouses. EATTA has 167 members in 9 countries in Africa. EATTA runs the Mombasa tea auction that is the second largest tea auction in the world after the Colombo auction. Of the tea exported globally, 32% passes through the Mombasa auction.

The auction has grown by a remarkable 300% in the past 20 years, by offering teas from all the member countries. The tea task force report of 2007 made specific recommendations based on challenges facing the industry. EATTA has identified four areas that need urgent address by the Government of Kenya;

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The tea trade in Mombasa made a donation of 10,300 kilograms of tea to the people of Pakistan on 3rd November 2010 at the EATTA Secretariat after the suffering and devastation caused by the recent floods and heavy rains. The tea was packed in water tight 5 kilogram bags. This donation is made in recognition of the good trade relations between the Association members and the great people of Pakistan. The good relationship was exemplified recently by the visit of the High Commissioner of Pakistan to Kenya HE Masroor Jumenjo in April 2010 to EATTA.

The 2010 Pakistan floods began in July 2010 following heavy monsoon rains in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Punjab and Baluchistan regions and affected the Indus River basin. At one point, approximately one-fifth of Pakistan's total land area was underwater. The floods directly affected about 20 million people, mostly by destruction of property, livelihood and infrastructure, with a death toll of close to 2,000.

Pakistan is an important market of East Africa. Pakistan buys all our grades of tea unlike other markets that buy particular grades. The Pakistan market being predominantly Islamic, takes tea as the beverage of choice. Many of our important tea markets are seasonal in the tea they purchase from the auction so that in some months demand for tea goes down; therefore Pakistan’s demand consistent throughout the year making it an ideal market.

EATTA in Conjunction with SGS Kenya conducted a three (3) day training on Quality Management System ISO-9001:2008 - Awareness and Internal Auditor Training. It targeted  EATTA membership category of tea Buyers and Brokers. The training was held on  6th - 8th October 2010 at EATTA Secretariat.

A record 26 participants attended the the training for the three days. Workshop participants were drawn from different buying and brokers houses within the tea trade. This marks a major milestone in the quest to have EATTA members achieve ISO certification standards.

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The Pro-invest marketing initiatives programme validation workshop took place on Tuesday 8th September 2010.

THE EAST AFRICAN TEA TRADE ASSOCIATION

Expression of Interest

For: Design, Development, Implementation and Commissioning of Electronic Auction system

Ref. EOI/IT-EATTA/01/2010

Date September 2010

Download copy of EOI

Background of EATTA

The East African Tea Trade Association (EATTA) is an association body established in 1957 to market tea to the rest of the world through the Mombasa Tea Auction, facilitate effective access to market and other relevant industry information, and promote industry interests rough proactive lobbying and advocacy measures. EATTA has been undergoing major strategic change in all areas including its Business Processes and Service Delivery.

EATTA has conducted a Feasibility study to guide its Business Process Re-engineering process.

EATTA is now looking for partners to implement a Distributed system to support it’s Reengineering process to E-auction.

Objective

EATTA wants to engage a competent IT vendor/ firms with experience in turn-key solutions towards the development and installation of a distributed IT solution with the view to automate the Tea trading procedures with special interest in E-auction.

The software system should enable member of the tea trade to conduct auctions online, buy/sell tea products on retail, offer payment settlement, generate statistical reports,

A company can present a proposal for either:

i. Software solution–Distributed system available via web with the following components:

a. Enterprise database solution preferably Oracle database

b. E-auction module

c. E-commerce platform

d. Banking module for settlement & disbursement

ii. Hardware and Infrastructure solution

a. Data centre with off-shore backup capabilities

iii. Both software and hardware & infrastructure solution 

All of the above solution will be as an outsourced service by EATTA and a firm can present aproposal to carry out the project either on its own or in conjunction with her subsidiaries or partners.

EOI SUBMISSION & EVALUATION

The bidders are required to submit their EoIs in the following indicative format:

General Organization Capacity

1. Organization legally established
2. Organization registered / accredited in Kenya or in any other state
3. Appropriateness of Organizations Mandate and/or Mission
4. Organization’s oversight / governance structures
5. Current staff that are permanent and with relevant experience base to support the
6. implementation of the IT project (programming, monitoring, reporting, finance,procurement, logistics, etc.)
7. Outsourced personnel for specific assignments and their roles
8. Proposed partnership arrangements (i.e. partnerships with local service providers where need be)

Technical Capacity

1. Demonstrated technical capacity of the organization
2. Availability of in-house technical skills
3. Demonstrated ability to achieve results
4. Demonstrate Business Continuity plans
5. Demonstrate Disaster Recovery structures in place

Experience of Organization in IT turn-key Solutions

1. Demonstrate technical capacity to successfully manage the project, based on experience on similar projects
2. Demonstrate experience on projects of similar scope and scale.
3. Demonstrate experience or understanding of auction systems
4. The EOIs will be evaluated based on the information provided and shortlisted firms will be issued with Request for Proposals (RFP)

Reputable Consultants are invited to express interest for Consultancy service and installation of the system. Interested firms MUST provide any relevant information indicating that they are qualified to perform the services through submittal of (Profiles, description of similar assignments, experience in similar conditions, availability of appropriate skills among staff,

Submission of EOIs

Interested vendors should submit their EOI document on or before 24th September, 2010 by

5.00 pm. The EOI document should be addressed to:

The Managing Director,

East African Tea Trade Association,

P. O. Box 85174 80100,

Mombasa

Download copy of EOI