THE TEA POSITION

Evening Post, Volume CVIV, Issue 2, 3 January 1925, Page 9

THE TEA POSITION

AN,EVER RISING PRlCE." "■'■■'" New Zealanders share with ' Australians'the distinction of being the. greatesttea drinkers in the world. Naturally I this country is interested in and affected by what other countries are doing to stimulate consumption. That the statisticar position is considered to be very encouraging -is evidenced by the fact that European merchants have in several cases bought forward crops in i IndJa, Ceylon, and Java right up to I 1927. Reference has already been made jin "The Post" to the vigorous sales campaign that is being conducted by tha | Indian Tea Association, which is expending £40,000 on propaganda.. in America alone'during the current year. That.there is ample scope for increased sales in that country is clear from the following figures of consumption : per. capita supplied in the 1924 Tea Share Handbook of a leading firm of London v brokers:— . ■ ■. ...

In 1913 the consumption per head in I the United States was about one-seventh of that, in Great Britain. In 1921 the proportion was as low as one-thirteenth, but it has since risen to about one-tenth, and there is every reason to expect that the ratio will improve, further during the coming year. " • '■.."." .-- The propaganda in the United States since December, 1923, is etated to have already yielded very •gratifying- results, in regard to the sales of highclass tea,, and it is obvious that-even a very small increase in the consumption per capita of a population of about 105 jnillions will mean a large expansion in the aggregate. With regard to Russia, the authority quoted above gives the imports for 1913 as 177.4 million lb., of winch 87.7 million lb came from China; 54.1 million v lb from India,'and 30.8^million lbxfrorii Java. The exports to" Russia from Great Britain fdt the-'first seven months of 1924 were shown to have been more than double those for 1923 and though they were still ■verysmall, as compared with pre-war years, a- steady improvement was expected

United -■ •»■■'' Kingdom ' 1b... • ' 1913 ........ 6.62 1919 : 8.45 1953 ...;. 8.43 1921 ..........;..;: 8.66 1922 8.67 1923 8.60 - " United States - lb. 0.96 0,87 6184 0.66 0.77 ; 0.88 .