FUTURE OF TEA

Hokitika Guardian, 18 May 1931, Page 2

FUTURE OF TEA

CONSUMPTION PEE HEAD.

NEW ZEALAND’S CAPACITY

LONDON, April 1

According to the report of the Imperial Economic Committee on “’Tea,” nearly five cups of this beverage are drunk per head of the population in the United ■ Kingdom. The annual consumption of tea in the United Kingdom now exceeds 240,000,0001 b. In the last 20 years the consumption of tea per head has risen from 6.481 b in 1911 to 9,2Q1b in 1929. • The spread of the habit of taking an early morning cup qf t e a, the midmorning cup of tea ainQng domestic servants, shoppers, apd business women, the early afternoon cup of tea ip offices, and an increase of tea. drinking among manual labourers are social changes of recent years to which it he report attributes some of the increase, Experts agree in the opinion that in domestic ime some 180-200 cups will be provided by a pound of tea.

Australia comes next to the Uniter' Kingdom with a consumption of 8.151 b per annum per head of the population, New Zealand and tllie Irish Free State ai'e bracketed third with 7.91 b. then Newfoundland 5.461 b. The United States of America is the largest hulk importer after the United Kingdom with 88,8 million pounds (as against the United Kingdom’s 421.3 million pounds), but this only gives a United States of America consumption per head of 0.751 b. The United States of America is a land of coffee drinkers, and, with a population three times ns large as that of the United Kingdom, tea consumption is less than a quarter.

In less than 100 years the British Empire has become the tea garden and the tea shop of the world. Today tea; forms, by value, 1 per cent, of the total of all merchandise entering world trade. Over 70 per cent, of it is consumed within the Empire. Over two-thirds of the entire capital engaged in the production of tea Is piroVided by |the Empire. AU the machinery enip eyed in India and Ceylon in the manufacture of tea is of Empire origin Over 60 per cent, of the chests there used for its transport are imported front Empire countries. In production, manufacture, transport and distribution, tea is to an exceptional degree an' Empire industry. The report reminds us that tea, coffee, and chocolate are now so much taken for granted that it is easy to overlook hoy,.deep and how recent is the revolution they have effected in social life, yet the time is almost Within living memory when beer was the breakfast beverage of the public school boy. Although the trade in China tea was already of considerable importance before the end of the eighteenth century, the industry in India and Ceylon, which now supp’ies over four-fifths of the United Kinedom import, is younger than the railway, and has indeed not yet seen its first centenary.

In the days of Queen Anne, t a a began to be a frequent, though still occasional, indulgence of fashionable society, but as the century wore on, te,a drinking spread r an idly, atm with Dr Johnson it was no longer a curiosity or a fad, but already a ha-bit—-almogt a vice—which he indulged not

sometimes, but at all times, especially after midnight. In 1703 the import had been some 100,0001bs, but by the year of Trafalgar it had reached 7,500,0001 b, and re-exports 1,000,0001 b, and the authorities had long since discovered the value- of the commodity for revenue purposes. China is no longer a serious competitor in the tea market, as she now only supplies 8 per cent, of the world’s exports, as compared with 73 per cent, from India nnd Ceylon.

The need for developing new world markets, if the tea gardens of the Empire are to continue working at full capacity, is stressed. The importance of maintaining and improving the quality of Empire-grown tens so that they may hold their own In competition, the desirability of taking steps to enable consumers to identify Empire blends, and the need for producers to study and keep in touch with changes in public taste are other points discussed in the report. There has been a striking decline in the exports of China ten during the present century. In 1899 exports of black and green tea amounted to over 153,n00,0{)01b. Tn 1928 they had sunk to just over 76.000.0001 b, or only half those at the en ( f of last century. The suggestion of the Economic 'Committee is that the rejection of tea in countries outside .Empire is due to ignorance, and the cure for ignorance is advertising. It is recorded that the United States «’ a s taught to drink coffee 50 years ago by advertisement.