Real Tea calls for preferential gesture

ALocal tea manufacturer, Motherwell Investments has pleaded with government to reserve them 70 percent of tea supplies. Speaking during their Win a Moraka prize award ceremony on Tuesday, Motherwell Investment Director, Gibson Ntibi said the company is well established and the product is well refined and processed to give the best taste of quality tea which is competing with well- established regional tea brands. “We have passed the test and we have the tenacity as a small business. We are now capable to cross the borders. We kindly need government assistance, 70 percent of tea supplies need to be reserved for our product, it is the only 100 percent Botswana owned. Our promise is that we can easily double the staff complement number.”

The company which started producing tea in 2018 currently produces 50 000kgs of tea per month. The product is available in a few supermarkets including, Choppies, Trident Holdings and Sefalana.

For his part, Business Botswana Chief Executive Officer, Norman Moleele urged the company to improve its competitiveness and explore international markets. “It is important to have a sustainable private sector and I urge Motherwell and other local businesses to work on their competitiveness, be export ready and reduce their over- reliance on government support.”

Moleele also emphasised that Real Tea Product should be a competitive product of high international standard.

In her comment, Deputy Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Agriculture Development and Food Security Tiny Deswai commended the company for its investment in agro- processing business. “As government, we recognize the critical role played by Small and Medium – sized Enterprises in the socio – economic development and economic diversification of this country.”

She highlighted that government has introduced various systems and programmes in order to assist citizens who want to enter into farming, such as ISPAAD and LIMID, programmes that provide funding and support for the farmer. In 2020, statistics indicated that Agriculture contributed 2.14percent to the GDP of Botswana, 25.03percent came from the Industry and 63.04percent from the services sector.

“If more Batswana could recognize the benefits of the Agricultural Sector to the country’s development, we could achieve diversification of the sector, and champion agricultural development through local production.”