About this Experience

Tea growing was introduced at Lake Kivu in 1952 and is one of Rwanda’s major exports. Pfunda Tea Company owns and manages extensive tea plantations and factories in the neighbourhood of Lake Kivu, approximately 9 Kilometres from the town of Rubavu, employing hundreds of people and thus improving their daily livelihoods. During the Pfunda Tea Plantation Tour we shall bring you to the lush green tea fields tucked in the countryside hills and deep valleys along Karongi road, where primarily women will introduce us to tea handpicking with a basket on the back, stop and admire, take photos, and participate in this memorable and active activity. We will learn how tea is planted and cared for and see how the tea is selectively picked and weighed as each worker here gets paid by the day’s handpicked weight of tea leaves. The adventurers can try riding on the back of the tea truck Rwandan-style with the rest of the workers from the factory and drive for 10 to 20 minutes into the tea estate. At the Pfunda factory, we shall bring the harvest and learn how the green leaves picked from the tea estate are processed and packaged for market consumption by the production team into black tea, green tea, and specialty tea. The Lake Kivu Pfunda Tea Plantation Tour is estimated to take 2hrs.