TEA PRODUCTION
(extract from "To pluck and be plucked" by Rojar Verschoor - 1996)
According to a Chinese legend, it was emperor Shen Nung who discovered the refreshing effects and fine taste of tea when he was out camping and a few Camellia leaves chanced to fall into boiling water. The Chinese started cultivating this plant and it subsequently spread to Japan, Java, India, Sri Lanka etc. as tea became an increasingly popular beverage.
Two distinct Camellia plants are recognized: the China bush and Assam tea. China tea has small leaves and yields less than the Assam type, but is highly valued for its flavour. Assam teas are quick-growing trees with large, tender leaves. There are many intermediate varieties. In general, tea plants flourish under the following conditions: a relatively high altitude; deep, fertile, slightly acid soils; well-distributed annual rainfall of 125 to 750 cm; temperatures between 13 and 30 C; and at least 4 hours of sunshine a day.
The most popular method of propagation for tea plants is as seedlings or cuttings in a nursery. Grafting is also practised but seed-at-stake planting in the fields is less common because it is successful only under ideal conditions. Cuttings are ready to be planted out in the fields after about 6 months, whereas seedlings are normally kept in the nursery for more than a year. It then takes 3-5 years before the tea can be plucked. On average the China bush has an economic life of about 100 years, as against about 40 years for Assam tea. It is usually recommended that older fields be uprooted and more closely planted.
Fieldwork in plantations consists of pruning, tipping, plucking, weeding, spraying, hoeing, manuring etc. Pruning is done to induce growth and to keep bushes at a workable height. As soon as shoots have developed after pruning, they are tipped so as to promote a level plucking surface. Plucking, which consists of collecting the new shoots, falls into two broad categories: fine plucking where 2 leaves and a bud are plucked, and coarse plucking which is anything more than 2 leaves and a bud (3 leaves and a bud is sometimes called medium plucking). Tea pluckers are instructed to follow a regular pattern of plucking according to the requirements of the garden or the time of year. Pluckers bring the leaves to collection points after which they must be processed as soon as possible. Processing comprises withering, rolling, fermenting and drying. The quality of manufactured (black) tea is highly dependent on the regularity and care with which the green leaves are plucked. It is a delicate and very labour intensive task which is often considered typical women's work because 'they have nimble fingers and are more docile'.
The finished product is sorted according to the method of rolling (orthodox or CTC) and by grades (whole-leaf, brokens, fannings and dust). For a more detailed description of the growing and processing of tea, see for example Merzenich 1986; Peters and Juffer 1995; or Subramaniam 1995.
Tea producing countries
After a disappointing harvest in 1992, the total world production of tea increased to nearly 2.6 million tonnes in 1993. In most countries 1994 also produced a good tea harvest. The world production is expected to increase still further, since the area under tea in countries like India, Bangladesh, Kenya, Malawi and Tanzania has recently expanded significantly.
Tea production is highly centralized: in 1993 a mere five countries - namely India, China, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Kenya - accounted for 75% of the world production. Most countries produce tea mainly for the export, but in India, China, Japan and Turkey most of the tea produced is consumed within the country. Tea producing countries can be further divided into two types of investors: the traditional producers of tea, anxious to protect their market shares, who invest particularly in the rehabilitation of trade areas (e.g. India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka); and relatively new producers in the expansionary phase, who invest in order to obtain a greater market share (Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and the like).
I shall now briefly discuss the tea industry in selected countries.
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