• Tea Biz Podcast | Episode 38

    Tea Biz Podcast Logo

    Listen on your favorite player

    Hear the Headlines

    | India Adopts Tea Industry Reforms
    | US Considers Granting Exemptions from Chinese Tariffs
    | A Tribute to Nepal Tea Maker Morris Orchard

    Seven-minute Tea News Recap

    Tea Price Report
    Oct 2 – Sale 39

    India Tea Price Watch

    India Tea Price Watch | Aravinda Anantharaman
    The Tea Board of India announced a mechanization subsidy for smallholders to address the problem of labor shortages in tea gardens. India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry extended its tea development and promotion program through 2025-26 discontinuing subsidies for Orthodox production that includes $40 million for clearing subsidies in the tea sector. Learn more…

    Aravinda Anantharaman

    Features

    This week Tea Biz travels to Alberta, Canada, high in the Canadian Rockies to visit one of several Swiss-inspired tea houses designed to provide high-mountain trekkers shelter and warmth.

    … and then we visit Tokyo, Japan to meet tech and tea entrepreneur Hiroshi Takatoh whose Teatis blends of brown seaweed and matcha and seaweed and botanicals are formulated to help diabetics control high blood sugar levels.

    Jolene Brewster, left, with partner Jess McNally in front of Jolene’s Tea House located in the historic Crag Cabin, Banff.

    Jolene’s Tea House

    By Jessica Natale Woollard

    The rugged Canadian Rocky Mountains thrust nearly 20,000 feet into the sky, a haven for hikers that inspired a unique style of high-mountain tea houses built to provide warmth and shelter along the trail. In Banff, Alberta, Tea Biz correspondent Jessica Natale Woollard visits Jolene’s Tea House – a refuge for mind and body. Read more…

    Listen to the Interview
    Jolene Brewster on the launch of Jolene’s Tea House

    Hiroshi Takatoh, CEO Teatis Tea
    Hiroshi Takatoh, CEO and Founder Teatis Tea

    A Medicinal Tea from the Sea

    By Dan Bolton

    Tea has an ancient history of medicinal applications, many of which have been validated by scientific research. The same is true of seaweed which contains antioxidants (vitamins A, C, and E) as well as trace minerals and protective pigments. Joining us from Tokyo for this week’s podcast is Hiroshi Takatoh, CEO, founder, and blender at Japan-based Teatis Tea. Takatoh is exploring, with his team of food scientists and doctors, tea formulations to assist diabetics and pre-diabetics control their blood sugar levels. Read more…

    Listen to the Interview
    Teatis Tea founder Hiroshi Takatoh discusses the medicinal benefits of blending brown seaweed and tea.

    News

    India will no longer require permits to grow tea, one of several reforms gradually deregulating the tea industry.

    India Adopts Tea Industry Reforms

    By Dan Bolton

    Facing continuing declines in export revenue, India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry has funded several programs and instituted fundamental reforms in tea.

    In September the Tea Board of India said it will suspend seven sections of the Tea Act of 1953 following the commerce ministry’s decision to amend regulations governing the sector. Seventeen of the Act’s 51 provisions are no longer enforced as India gradually deregulates the tea sector.

    Permits to grow tea will no longer be required, a decision that is likely to increase unregulated production by smallholders who now account for 52% of India’s tea by volume. Tea production has rebounded in 2021, up 18% compared to the first eight months of 2020 to total 792 million kilos. Read more…

    A Tribute to Teamaker Morris Orchard

    The death of Nepal teamaker Morris Orchard due to COVID-19 is a sad reminder of the pandemic’s toll on the global tea community. Orchard, general manager at Jun Chiyabari Tea Estate and a third-generation tea man, was 58. Kevin Gascoyne, a partner at Montreal’s Camellia Sinensis tea company and a long-time buyer of Nepal tea shares how Orchard advanced tea making in his lifetime. View on YouTube.

    Jun Chiyabari Teamaker Morris Orchard (1963-2021)
    Listen to the Interview
    Montreal-based Camellia Sinensis tea buyer Kevin Gascoyne pays tribute to teamaker Morris Orchard

    US Considers Exemptions from Chinese Tariffs

    Trade talks between the US and China will resume but there is little hope the Biden Administration will do away with tariffs that have depressed tea imports from China for the past three years. However, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced the US will resume a program that allows companies importing some product categories to apply for exemptions, relieving them from paying the tariff.

    Applications for exclusions were suspended in 2018. USTR writes that of the initial 2,200 exclusions granted, 549 were extended through Dec. 31, 2020. Criteria to qualify is based on economic hardship and whether the product is available only from China, which is true of several categories of tea.

    The US currently charges duties on $350 billion of Chinese goods, penalizing importers who often pass the added expense to consumers. Tariffs add 7.5% to the price of Chinese tea. Tai said the US “does not want to inflame trade tensions with China” but made it clear additional duties and restrictions could be imposed.

    Biz Insight – Tariffs on tea are insignificant compared to those levied on steel, agricultural food products and create no hardship for the Chinese who annually export $2 billion worth of tea. The 50-day public comment period on why the USTR should reinstate exemptions opens on Oct. 12. The list of previous exemptions is posted on the USTR website. None of the 549 exemptions were granted to tea companies but companies importing ink cartridges, submersible pumps, lampshades, bottle caps, and electric motors all made the list.

    — Dan Bolton

    • Read more… links indicate the article continues. Learn more… links to additional information from reliable outside sources.

    Upcoming Events

    October 2021
    Duyun Maojian International Forum for Tea Lovers | Dunyun, Guizhou, China |
    6th Annual Conference for China Tea Import and Export Trade | Oct. 21-22
    The co-located events showcase the production of Maojian green tea. China quarantine and travel restrictions apply. Website | Brochure (PDF)

    December 2021

    World Tea & Coffee Expo | Gandhinagar, India | December 2-4
    Launched in 2013 and now operated by Messe Muenchen India, this hybrid virtual and in-person event for tea and coffee professionals is now scheduled for the Helipad Exhibition Centre, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India. Website | Register

    Click to view more upcoming events.


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    Listen to Tea Biz on Apple Podcasts

    https://teabiz.sounder.fm/episode/news-01212021

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  • Tea Biz Podcast | Episode 37

    Tea Biz Podcast Logo

    Listen on your favorite player

    Hear the Headlines

    | Kenya Exports Saturate Black Tea Market
    | COVID Depresses Japanese Tea Business in Unique Ways
    | Unilever is Recognized as the Top Food and Agriculture Benchmark

    Seven-minute Tea News Recap

    Tea Price Report
    Sept 25 – Sale 38

    India Tea Price Watch

    India Tea Price Watch | Aravinda Anantharaman
    The Tea Board of India announced a mechanization subsidy for smallholders to address the problem of labor shortages in tea gardens. India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry extended its tea development and promotion program through 2025-26 discontinuing subsidies for Orthodox production that includes $40 million for clearing subsidies in the tea sector. Learn more…

    Aravinda Anantharaman

    Features

    This week Tea Biz travels to Monte Metilile in Mozambique, a country along the southern coast of East Africa where Mohit Agarwal, Director of the Asian Tea Group, has revived an abandoned 15,000-acre tea estate to demonstrate the viability of organic farming at scale.

    … and then we talk with supply chain and procurement expert John Snell about what makes Mozambique such an exceptional tea-producing region.

    Monte Metilile, TE Mozambique
    Monte Metilile Tea Estate in Mozambique is the world’s largest certified organic tea plantation.

    Organic Tea Farming at Scale

    By Dan Bolton

    Mozambique is the best-kept secret in the tea world, says Mohit Agarwal, Director of the Asian Tea Group, the company that owns Cha de Magoma and the Monte Metilile brand. Mohit is walking the garden as we speak via Zoom, describing the organic dairy herd, a forest of renewable eucalyptus used for fuel, the hydroelectric turbines that power the plantation’s three factories. Pointing to the brilliant green tea bushes that stretch as far as the eye can see he explains that during 15 years of civil war from 1977 until 1992 Mozambique’s tea plantations were abandoned. Read more…

    Listen to the Interview
    Mohit Agarwal, Managing Director at the Asia Tea Group, discusses the advantages of scale.

    John Snell
    Procurement expert John Snell, founder of NM Tea B Consulting and owner of Ela’s Tea.

    John Snell: Mozambique is God’s Country for Tea

    By Dan Bolton

    A century ago, when the Portuguese first planted tea in Gurúè, Mozambique they found gentle, well-drained slopes of rich red volcanic soils at 1,500 to 3,600 feet elevation – the same altitude as India’s Darjeeling mid-tier gardens. The climate there is cool and dry from May to September and hot and humid between October and April. Annual rainfall averages more than 3,000 millimeters. By 1950 production exceeded 20,000 metric tons a year and there was more land under tea in Mozambique than any country in Africa. Listen as procurement and supply chain expert John Snell explains why Mozambique is such a great place to source tea. Read more…

    Listen to the Interview
    John Snell on why Mozambique is a great place to source tea.

    News

    Kenya increased pay for green leaf and provided smallholders 65,000 metric tons of fertilizer to increase production.

    Kenya Exports Saturate Black Tea Market

    By Dan Bolton

    Kenya reported a 19% increase in exports totaling almost 300 million kilos through June despite falling production totals. In September Kenya increased fertilizer subsidies following an August increase in payments for green leaf sold to Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) factories. The combination will spur tea production and likely increase Kenya’s share of the global black tea market. Low prices led India to import 5 million kilos of Kenyan tea in the first half of 2021, compared to 1.5 million kilos during the previous year. Worldwide, tea supply continues to outstrip demand, continuing a downward trend dating to 2018. Read more…

    Japanese funeral
    Japanese funerals involved tea and generous tea gifting. Funeral directors note a steep decline since COVID-19.

    COVID Depresses Japanese Tea Market in Unique Ways

    By Dan Bolton

    Like the rest of the world, Japanese tea growers suffered as restaurants closed, social gatherings were canceled, and safety precautions limited harvest days and processing.

    The pandemic also inflicted setbacks unique to the market including a sharp decline in the gifting of tea at funerals.

    Japan’s Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry, reports that production of unrefined “aracha” declined by 15% in 2021 compared to the previous year. Year-on-year sales of first flush teas fell by 20% in Shizuoka prefecture and by 17% in Kagoshima, according to ministry figures.

    The Japanese Association of Tea Production reports that total production of sencha declined by 15% in 2020, compared to 2019.

    Japanese office workers are teleworking and drinking tea at home but tourism dollars are down 79% compared to 2019, despite the Olympiad and Japan’s popular rural ryokan inns are shuttered, according to the Japan Times.

    An article published in Japan News identifies money spent on gifting tea at funeral services is down 90% from a peak of 13.6 million yen in 2015.

    The publication quoted a tea association spokesperson, PAUSE “Even if the pandemic is brought under control, I doubt funeral services will ever go back to the way they were before.”

    Biz Insight – To boost sales city and regional governments in tea growing regions are providing subsidies. Shizuoka’s prefectural government is offering producers ¥5 million yen (about $30,000) to develop new tea products and ¥3 million yen (about $45,000) to develop new sales channels.

    Unilever Named Top Food and Agriculture Company by World Benchmarking Alliance

    The World Benchmarking Alliance has named Unilever its top Food and Agricultural Benchmark. The alliance, established in 2018, encourages seven transformations considered essential to put society and the worldwide economy on a more sustainable path.

    Annually the group evaluates 2000 of the world’s most influential businesses against its benchmarks.

    In a first, the alliance assessed transformation in the Food and Agriculture system globally, ranking 350 companies from farm to fork. Criteria include transforming nutrition, addressing environmental issues, and social inclusion. According to the Alliance, the findings reveal worrying gaps in the industry’s adaptation to climate change, progress on human rights, and contribute to healthy diets.

    “Only 26 of the 350 companies are working to reduce emissions from their direct activities through science-based targets set by the Paris Agreement,” writes the Alliance.

    Unilever Benchmarks

    Unilever, one of the world’s largest food companies, received a combined score of 71.7 out of 100, ranking ahead of Nestlé (which scored 68.5) and Danone (which scored 63.6). Retailer Tesco and beverage companies PepsiCo and Anheuser-Busch InBev were among the top 10. No foodservice company made it into the top 10. One hundred and nineteen companies scored between 10 and 25 points and 110 companies scored below 10 points out of 100.

  • Benchmarks for the world’s 350 most influential food and agriculture companies
Download Unilever’s World Benchmarking Scores (PDF)

Biz Insight – The Alliance writes that “while companies at the top of the ranking demonstrate that they are meeting societal expectations on a variety of topics, the overall average benchmark performance is low. Almost two-thirds of the companies in scope fail to obtain a quarter of total scores, demonstrating significant room for improvement across all measurement areas.”

— Dan Bolton


Upcoming Events

October 2021

World Tea & Coffee Expo | India
Postponed to December 2-4 | Launched in 2013 and now operated by Messe Muenchen India, this hybrid virtual and in-person event for tea and coffee professionals is now scheduled for the Helipad Exhibition Centre, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India. Website | Register

Click to view more upcoming events.


Share this episode with your friends in tea.



Listen to Tea Biz on Apple Podcasts

https://teabiz.sounder.fm/episode/news-01212021

Subscribe and receive Tea Biz weekly in your inbox.

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