Presentation from the founding meeting of the United States League of Tea Growers at the World Tea Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada on June 8, 2013. This meeting was attended by many tea growers and some of the most influential people in the tea industry today. View more information here: http://www.worldoftea.org/us-league-of-tea-growers/
2. WHO WE ARE
Jason McDonald – soon to be
tea farmer
60,000 plants in nursery
12 acres cleared and ready
Nigel Melican – tea
technology consultant with
33 years tea production
experience across 26 countries
9. WHY THE SUDDEN INCREASE?
• Burgeoning US tea market
• Trend to Specialty tea
• Opportunities for novel origins
• High sales value supports higher production costs
• Distrust of some traditional origins
• Trend to localism – food miles concern
10. US TEA SALES ARE RISING RAPIDLY.
$1.8
billion $4.3
billion
$7.8
billion
$15.0
billion
1990 2000 2010 2014
Actual and projected sales, all tea
SOURCES: Simrany, Joseph P. (2011). Tea Trends. New York, NY: The Tea Association of the U.S.A, Inc.; “Starbucks is Done with
‘Coffee’. The Economist, Nov. 24, 2013.
11. A HISTORY OF US TEA GROWING
1795 - Andre Michaux grows Chinese seed in SC
1848 – Julius Smith experiments with growing tea in Greenville SC
1858 – US Gov commissions Robert Fortune to collect and import seed
1880 – US Gov recruits John Jackson to plant 200 acres in SC
1890 – Charles Shepard – Pinehurst Tea Garden, Summerville SC – 125 acres
1901 – American Tea Growing Co plant 600,000 tea bushes
1915 – Pinehurst abandoned
1960 – TJ Lipton acquire the Pinehurst collection
1965 – Lipton Tea Research Station established on Wadmalaw Island SC
1984 – Lipton enters J/V with Alexander & Baldwin to grow tea in Hawaii
1985 – Lipton closes LTRS and sell to Bill Hall and Mack Fleming – who create
American Classic Tea
1988 – Lipton abandons tea growing in Hawaii
2003 – Bigelow acquires the Wadmalaw Island tea farm
In the main a sad history of failed attempts. . .
12. HOW IS US TEA GROWING DIFFERENT?
Antithesis of traditional small farmer tea growing:
• Low labour
• Vertical integration
• Small volume by choice
• Requires a high level of investment
• Suited to high tech – automation and mechanized
• Can produce high value products
• Products can be matched to markets
• Diversification is welcomed
I suspect these new methods will eventually guide traditional tea growing
13. `````WHAT WILL ENSURE SUCCESS?
WORKING TOGETHER TO:
• Build up plant husbandry knowledge
• Develop best practice processing knowhow
• Develop appropriate automation
• Product and process innovation
• Trials related to US conditions
• Access to cultivars specific to US requirements
• Generic promotion of US grown teas
• Collaboration and information sharing
• Access to information resources
• Development and promotion of agri-tourism
14. COMPETITION IS BUILDING
• The time frame is limited for US growers to
cooperate and create a viable specialty tea
market presence
• Sri Lanka, China and Kenya have each declared
specialty tea market aspirations
• UK, New Zealand and Australia are already
developing high value tea production and
marketing
15. WHY US LEAGUE OF TEA GROWERS?
• To connect far flung tea growers for mutual benefit
• To form a platform for developing US specific tea
knowhow, equipment, technology and cultivars on
behalf of members
• To act as a catalyst for collaboration between US
tea growers
• To foster agri-tourism both as an educational tool
for increasing awareness of US grown tea and as
an effective selling medium
• To promote demand for US tea grown
16. USLTG – WHAT NEXT?
• Agree the need for an organization
• Form an interim committee
• Work up a constitution for discussion
• Meet again to launch the organization
• Create web site
• Recruit members
• Commence supporting US tea growing
17. Thank you all for being here – and
for making history today
18. KEY ROLES FOR USLTG
1. To actively encourage the growing and production of high value
specialty teas within the USA
2. To bring together US tea growers on a basis of cooperative
collaboration
3. To be the visible focus of tea growing in the USA.
4. To promote and encourage knowledge about specialty tea and to
protect the name ‘tea’ as a Camellia sinensis derived beverage
wherever possible.
5. Act as an accessible repository and archive for information
(technical, scientific, practical and commercial) relevant to US tea
growing.
6. Encourage sharing of information, equipment and ideas between
members
7. Act as a forum for US tea growers and formally represent their views
on the US Tea Council and the International Tea Committee
8. To interact internationally with tea growers and producers in other
countries to the mutual benefit of all
9. Encourage new entrants into tea growing in the USA via education,
provision of training, and dissemination of information
10. Provision of practical assistance to new growers via workshops,
access to cuttings, and pooling of machinery
19. 11. Stimulate machinery and systems development by academia
or commercial companies to facilitate high technology tea
agronomy and harvesting.
12. To produce best-method handbooks of proven practical
advice on growing, harvesting and processing of tea in the USA
13. Collect and maintain a gene pool representing all beverage
Camellia material available in the USA
14. Adding to the US held gene pool by accessing genetic material
from other tea producer countries
15. Exchange genetic material with other gene pools
16. Seek to understand the relationship between the Camellia
sinensis genome and commercial requirements
17. Test and evaluate the genetic material held to select varieties
or cultivars most suitable for US growing conditions – to include
season extension, pest and disease tolerance, drought
tolerance, mechanical handling suitability, processability, cup
quality and health benefits.
18. Encourage academia and commercial outlets to take up and
refine initial plant selections.
19. To have a membership structure that incorporates a core
membership of active and potential tea growers, and an
affiliated membership of tea educators, tea market facilitators,
tea scientists, tea authors and tea bloggers.