Mauritius Offers Rs 25,000 Per Arpent to Revive Tea Farming

The Mauritian government has officially launched a Tea Replantation Scheme designed to bring abandoned tea lands back into production and significantly grow the country's tea output over the next three years.

The Cabinet, meeting on Friday 14 November 2026, approved the scheme, which will be administered by the Small Farmers Welfare Fund (SFWF), a government body that supports small agricultural producers across the island. The initiative forms part of measures announced in the 2026/27 national budget aimed at revitalising the local tea industry.

Under the scheme, eligible small farmers will receive a subsidy covering 50 percent of their replantation costs, capped at Rs 25,000 per arpent. An arpent is a traditional Mauritian land measurement roughly equivalent to 0.42 hectares or just over one acre.

Preliminary surveys conducted by the SFWF have identified approximately 46.45 arpents of abandoned tea land, spread across four tea-growing areas in the south and centre-south of Mauritius: Nouvelle-France, Grand-Bois, Bois-Cheri and Grande-Chartreuse. Around fifty small planters currently hold these neglected plots, and they will form the first cohort to benefit from the programme.

Bois-Cheri, home to the island's most famous tea estate and the Bois Cheri Tea Museum, is the heartland of Mauritian tea production. The surrounding villages have long depended on tea cultivation as a source of income, but the sector has faced decades of decline due to ageing plants, rising labour costs and competition from imported teas.

The Ministry of Agro-Industry, Food Security, Blue Economy and Fisheries will oversee the rollout of this first phase with the initial fifty farmers. The programme is then expected to expand across the following two financial years, with a target of bringing an additional 175 arpents back under cultivation.

The overall government ambition is to increase local tea production by 50 percent by 2029. Officials have indicated that compliance with prescribed agronomic standards will be monitored to ensure subsidies are used appropriately, though detailed enforcement mechanisms were not disclosed in the Cabinet communique.

What this means: For small tea farmers who have let their land lie idle, this scheme offers a concrete financial incentive to replant. The Rs 25,000 per arpent ceiling means those with larger plots will need to cover the balance themselves, but for smallholders the subsidy could cover or come close to covering their replantation costs entirely. For consumers and the broader economy, a stronger local tea industry would reduce dependence on imports and support rural livelihoods in the south of the island, a region where agricultural employment remains important.

Source: ION News