MPANGA GROWERS TEA FACTORY Located in the District of Kabarole in western Uganda, the Mpanga Growers Tea Factory processing plant is one of the four sites (along with Mabale, Igara and Kayonza) that formerly belonged to the Uganda Tea Growers Corporation (UTGC), an organisation created by the public authorities in February 1966. Originally built between 1971 and 1976 to process the harvests of local producers and provide them with a wide range of services, these large industrial sites suffered a long period of neglect and deprivation during the Amin regime. The plant only began proper operation in 1988 under the aegis of the UTGC. In 1995, immediately after the liberalisation of the tea and coffee markets in Africa, the Mpanga site was privatised in favour of the local producers who jointly acquired shares in the new organisation, which took the name of Mpanga Growers Tea Factory Limited. Supported by the European Union, the process of liberalisation launched in the 1990s by the Ugandan state was clearly aimed at encouraging small producers to invest in collaborative projects, to develop their production and mutualise their investments. Since 2000, the 200,000 shares in the company have been fully owned by some 500 local producers who have adopted a cooperative type organisation headed by a Board of Directors who are elected at the General Meeting of Shareholders and who are all tea growers. With more than 460 workers employed directly by the company on the site or in the production areas, the Mpanga Growers Tea Factory Limited directly supports about 4,700 people.
24