Chapter 655 Tea Industry Development Status
Ernst went to the Kitundashan weapons and equipment test site, mainly to visit various weapons and equipment tests. As for the "Military Vehicle Research Institute", it is basically an empty shell now, but it is easy to understand in the early stages of the entire automobile industry. So in less than a day, Ernst returned to the first town.
Finance Minister von der Leyen provided Ernst with a list of the tea industry, which has developed into one of East Africa's important industries in recent years.
"In 1879, East Africa's tea production was second only to the Far East Empire and India, but in 1882 our tea exports climbed to the third place in the world for the first time. Last year, our industry's exports were second only to the Indian tea region and the Far East tea region, with a production of more than 22,000 tons, of which more than 11,000 tons were exported. The Far East Empire's production should be around 100,000 tons, and India's production is around 20,000 tons. Our tea is mainly sold to Germany, Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean coast (including North Africa), and the Middle East."
The increase in tea exports from East Africa mostly came from the help of the Hechingen Consortium. This was because people in Central and Eastern Europe did not have the same tea-loving habits as the British, nor did they have high-quality tea-producing areas like India. So if they wanted to expand the market, they had to invest in advertising in Germany and cooperate with distributors. The Far Eastern Empire's export tea trade was also mostly monopolized by Britain. Of course, Britain itself was also the largest consumer of exported tea.
Overall, the quality of East African tea cannot yet compete with the tea producing areas of the first two countries, but each has its own advantages and disadvantages and is not completely uncompetitive.
The first is the tea market controlled by Germany and other countries in East Africa. The current global tea production is far less than that of later generations. In the past, the tea production in Kenya alone was higher than that of the Far East Empire, India and East Africa, so the market capacity is still large, especially in Europe and Arab regions (Middle East and North Africa) that do not produce tea.
In the UK and Western Europe, the tea trade is mainly controlled by the UK and the Netherlands, and has a relatively large impact on Central and Eastern Europe. However, the cheaper East African tea has had a great impact on the original tea market in Central and Eastern Europe after its production increased, and it has currently become the most important tea market in East Africa.
In the Arab region, mainly North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, East Africa also has certain advantages in the tea market. In addition to the sea routes, North Africa's land tea trade routes are also very prosperous, especially the Arab caravans in the heart of the Sahara Desert.
The East African tea was able to squeeze into the Arabian Peninsula thanks to the Omanis, also known as Zanzibar merchants. Oman is the country with the most prosperous Indian Ocean trade in the Arab region, so relying on Zanzibar merchants, East African tea naturally entered the Arabian Peninsula and radiated to other regions.
Except for Central and Eastern Europe and the Arab region, East Africa cannot compete with the Far Eastern Empire and India in other regions. The Far Eastern Empire's independent tea business covers the whole of East Asia and part of Southeast Asia, Central Asia, and North Asia (Tsarist Russia can be almost ignored). In addition, due to reasons of taste and output, the Indian tea area cannot compete with the Far Eastern Empire.
"Green tea does not need to be fermented, but it needs to be 'killed'. Killing means that after the fresh tea leaves are picked, they are fried, baked, dried in the sun or steamed to keep their original color and flavor as much as possible. However, the sales of this kind of tea in Europe are still not as good as those of black tea. Instead, it is more popular in the Mediterranean region, with Austria and Italy being the main markets."
"On the contrary, black tea and dark tea products are generally able to be preserved for a long time, and their quality of becoming more fragrant with age makes them very popular in overseas markets."
"However, the consumption of green tea in my country is higher than that of black tea. It was mainly immigrants from the Far East who introduced the green tea culture to East Africa."
Of course, the green tea culture in East Africa is a very common folk tea culture, which is not as particular as that of the wealthy families in the Far East Empire, but it has also made a great contribution to the popularization of tea drinking in East Africa.
This tea drinking culture only fooled immigrants from the German region, and correspondingly, immigrants from the German region were able to introduce their research on coffee to immigrants from the Far East.
In fact, the two major immigrant groups do not have a deep understanding of tea or coffee, and they are more influenced by their own cultural environment.
"Tea trees can be grown in almost all of East Africa, especially in the vast plateau areas in the east (Kenya, Malawi, Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique, etc.), which are all excellent tea producing areas. They are mainly divided into two parts, one is the northern tea area (Kenya) and the other is the southern tea area (along the shores of Lake Malawi)."
"The northern tea region is a high-quality tea region in East Africa. It is the earliest batch of tea introduced here. Among them, three tea varieties have been cultivated for many years and are now relatively mature.
In addition, tea from the northern tea region is more popular in Germany because of its high integrity of tea leaves, bright color, flower-like East African aroma, slightly bitter taste, strong and fresh smell, bright red soup color, mellow taste, superior quality, and unique flavor. Two of them are black tea and one is dark tea. The craftsmanship mainly replicates the Far East Empire technology, but we are also researching related machinery and equipment to increase production without affecting the taste. "
Thanks to the superior geographical conditions of the northern tea region, with an average annual temperature of around 20 degrees, ample sunlight, abundant rainfall, relatively few pests, an altitude of 1,500 meters, and slightly acidic volcanic ash soil, the northern tea region has become an ideal place to produce high-quality highland tea.
Moreover, the tea trees in East Africa are evergreen all year round. Taking the northern tea-growing areas as an example, between June and July each year, tea growers pick tea leaves every two to three weeks on average. And in the golden tea picking season in October each year, tea can be picked every five or six days. Therefore, East African tea can grow all year round without a dormant period, which makes the yield of East African tea higher under the same area.
"This year we established the Mombasa Tea Auction House in Mombasa to offer tea to merchants from Austria, Germany, Oman and other countries."
The tea-growing areas in northern East Africa have already formed a preliminary reputation, which is a gift from God. The same variety may be unknown when grown in the Far East, but the taste is greatly improved in East Africa, with quite a flavor of "oranges grown in Huainan".
"The annual output of tea in the southern tea region is about 4,000 tons, mainly black tea. The tea soup is clear and the quality is medium to high. The tea species belongs to the Indian species, so the grading method is the same as Indian tea, and the production method of tea blending is also used."
"The tea-producing areas in the south mainly use "Indian tea" as their signature product and sell it to Western Europe. We cooperate with Dutch tea merchants and sell it at a price that is 3% lower than the authentic Indian tea. However, including the freight, since the Indian tea area is mainly located in the northeast, it is about 1,000 kilometers longer than the East African route, which makes the cost of Malawi's tea-producing areas lower."
This can also be considered a strategy for exporting tea from East Africa. After all, East Africa is a new tea producing area, so in the core business areas of the African Xinggen Group, it is inevitable to rely on the reputation of the Far East Empire or India, two countries with relatively mature tea industries, to open up the market.
Of course, counterfeit goods are not a long-term solution. East Africa is also working hard to develop its own tea brand, which is also the main task of the northern tea area. The northern tea area is the highest quality tea area in East Africa, especially the three relatively mature teas, whose quality can be compared with many teas in the Far East Empire.
Therefore, tea from the northern tea areas has good sales in Germany due to its price and quality advantages, and the price route is a development focus of East African tea.
After all, judging from the development path of tea in the past, European and American countries do not attach much importance to the grade of tea, or they do not have the rich tea culture heritage and atmosphere of East Asia. Instead, tea brands produced and processed by large-scale industrial enterprises are more easily accepted.
(End of this chapter)
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