Tea Consumption and Trade

TEA: CONSUMPTION AND TRADE. The world's annual consumption of tea is in the region of goo million pounds. This is exclusive of the tea consumed by the population of China which, in the nature of things cannot even be estimated.

The sources of supply, with their fluctuations during the last thirty years, may be gauged from the following table: In 1927, Ceylon produced 226 million pounds of tea from 403, 00o acres. Java and Sumatra together produced 136 million pounds from 250,000 acres.

Japan's production was in the same year 176,153 piculs, equal to 231 million pounds, very little of which found its way into the United Kingdom. The Island of Formosa (Japanese) produced 22 million pounds in 1925, mostly Oolong.

Of the varieties of tea, the great proportion produced in British India and in Ceylon is good, sound black tea. Thus, while India exported 36o million pounds of black during the season 1927-8, only 945,000 pounds of green left the country. During 1927, the proportions exported from Ceylon were 225 million pounds of black to about 2 million pounds of green. The latter figures com pare with over 5 million pounds of green in 1913, a symptom of the general decline in the taste for green tea. The export of tea from China is divided into several kinds. Thus in 1926, the pro portions were: black, 39 million pounds; green, various sorts, 43 million pounds; brick and tablet (mostly exported to Russia through North Pacific ports) 18 million pounds; other sorts, in cluding unfired, scented, siftings, dust and stalk, io million pounds.

Of the smaller producing states, it is noteworthy that Nyasa land sends small quantities to the British market, nearly a thou sand packages having been sold during the first half of the year 1928. Kenya Colony had in 1927, 3,156 acres under tea, produc ing 8,700 lb.—a pioneer industry which is likely to expand. Other centres of production for local consumption are Natal, Persia, the Caucasus, Annam, Burma, Palestine, and even the southern part of the United States. The quantity is very small in each case.

Importation and Consumption.

Great Britain and Northern Ireland consume more tea than all other countries combined. On the authority of the Tea Brokers' Association of London the following figures of imports are given: (The percentage figures have been added in brackets for the sake of comparison.) India and Ceylon, as sources of the world's tea supplies, show a steady increase. Java, thanks to the

energy and enterprise of the Dutch, exhibits a remarkable advance.

The acreage under tea in India during the same period with the production therefrom is shown by the following table Tea Consumption per Head.—The present per capita consump tion, in the principal consuming countries of tea in pounds per head, arrived at by dividing the figures as given above for home consumption by the latest ascertainable number of the popula tion, is as follows : Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 9.4 ; New Zealand, 9 ; Australia, 8.3 ; Irish Free State, 7.6 ; Canada, 4 ; Hol land, 3.2; South Africa, 1•7; United States of America, .84 ; European Russia, .27; Germany, .18 ; France .07.

Value of Imports and Duty.

The average landing values of tea in the United Kingdom for the following years may be compared : The duty since 1900, when it was raised from 4d. to 6d. per lb., has been as follows: 1904, 8d.; 1905, 6d. ; 1906, 5d.; 1914, 8d.; 1915, is.; 1919, iod. British grown, Is. foreign grown ; 1922, 6Jd. British grown, 8d. foreign grown; 1924 and since, 33d. and 4d. How Consumed.—In Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions, tea is drunk simply as an infusion and usually with milk and sugar. In Russia, the samovar is traditional and a pot of strong China tea is made. A little of the liquor is put in a glass and filled up with boiling water from the samovar, and a spoonful of jam or a slice of lemon, and a lump of sugar added. In America, iced tea is a hot-weather drink. (C. L. T. B.) a box, jar, canister or other receptacle for tea. The word is believed to be derived from catty, the Chinese pound, equal to about a pound and a third avoirdupois. The earliest examples that came to Europe were of Chinese porcelain, and in shape resembled the ginger-jar. They had lids or stop pers likewise of china, and were most frequently blue and white. The English kilns at first imitated them, but speedily devised forms and ornament of their own, and there was hardly a ceramic factory in the country which did not compete for the supply of the new fashion. But tea-caddies were not for long confined to por celain or faience. They were presently made in a variety of materials, and in an equal variety of shapes. On the whole the mahogany or rosewood caddy of the latter part of the 18th and the early years of the i 9th century was, from the artistic point of view, the most elegant and satisfying.