Time for coffee and tea
The world tea industry
The tea industry is very diverse in aspect; it is spread over five continents in units of various sizes from a fraction of an acre to thousands of acres. The economies of tea growing countries differ widely, with some being much more sophisticated in the growing tea than others.
Tea production has increased rapidly in the last decade especially in the East African countries. The increase in production is not a result of increased tea growing areas but mainly due to improved techniques in tea breeding and manufacturing processes.
One of the main improvements in tea production is down to the progress that the tea industry has been made in the planting of material. Other advances include irrigation, weed destruction by herbicides, and refinements in the use of tea fertilizers.
Given its previous connections with tea producing countries through the commonwealth it is not surprising that the United kingdom is still the best customer of the tea producing countries.
The section on this site dedicated to tea is split into 14 main sections, these are available in the bottom of the left side navigation bar sections include: Manuring; Shade, green manuring and irrigation; Diseases and their control; Insect and other pests; The chemistry of the tea leaf and of its manufacture; Tea manufacture and The tea trade and industry.