AMERICA PURCHASES TEA.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1710, 10 May 1917, Page 4

AMERICA PURCHASES TEA.

According to n Sydney paper, the United Slates of America is purchasing tea on the Sydney market. So far about 1,500 chests have been obtained. The tea bought is whole leaf tea, which is not suitable tor the Australian blends. Broken-leal teas are those which find most faconr here. As it happens, during the last nine months there have been large quantities of whole-leaf tea available in Australia, and the holders were in a quandary what to do with it. This whole-leaf tea is a remnant from the heavy contracts which were entered into with Ceylon in 1915. Whole gardens were bought at that lime, and all had to be taken, whole-leafs, brokens, dusts, and fannings. It was recognised that few of the whole-leafs would be used in Australia, but it "Us thought that they could be disposed of elsewhere at a profit. As ft happened, buyers outside. Australia would not bid up to what the holders wanted, and so these wholeleafs have hung like an incubus on the market during the hist six months, while broken-leaf teas have steadily become in shorter supply. The United States is searching the world for teas for her new army. Whole-leaf teas are preferred by tea drinkers in the United States, and the amount hanging on this market has been thh opportunity of her merchants to buy. The transaction will work out advantageously to the buyer. The purchases have been made below the prices ruling in the centres of production, in addition freight from Australia to New York costs only half as much as from Colombo to Neu York. Also, the war risk is in favour of the Australian voyage. That America should purchase tea from Australia is a position undreamt of there. Six months ago a suggestion of such a possibility would have been ridiculed not only in Australia, but in Great Britain and in America itself. That it has. occurred is due to the fact that someone at the. oth'er end of the world recollected that Australia had on hand a description of tea which it could not get rid of, while that was what was required by America.