Tea plantation in Tanzania. (Photo: Gumtau/CC)

By Chris Walker
Last week, global corporation Unilever announced that it is to triple its production of tea in Tanzania. It’s the latest outcome of Unilever’s partnership with the Tanzanian government, formed in 2013 to much fanfare, to ‘reinvigorate’ the Tanzanian tea sector.
The company claims that their new investment will generate approximately £90m in revenues for the country. The tea-growing scheme will be based in the new Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT), a 7.5 million hectare area of fertile land now designated for industrial farming by corporations. The announcement has been hailed by the corporate world as a sure sign that Tanzania is now a place to do business.