SALE OF TEA

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 83, 8 April 1938, Page 14

SALE OF TEA

PRICE RESTRICTS BUSINESS

Efforts of tea producers to Increase the consumption of tea would appear to be neutralised to some extent by its price restricting sales. Brooke, Bond, and Co., London, in their annual report of the tea market, state that "there is no doubt that the price of common tea from the regulating countries is too high, and very little can be done to stop the importation of these low-grade teas until there is a distinct fall in the price of common tea from the regulating countries." The report also states that there are countries which, were it not for internal economic conditions, would increase considerably their imports of tea.

"Regulation of exports from India, Ceylon, and the Dutch East Indies is virtually assured for the next five years. The only probable cause of its "breakdown would be a first-class war, in which all countries would be clamouring for commodities." There is a possibility that increased importations of low-grade tea from the Far East may become such a menace as to make the International Tea Committee reconsider the position. Large quantities of common Japan, Formosa, and China tea have been going into Great Britain, and blends labelled as 'Unrivalled for richness, strength, and delicacy of flavour' are being retailed below the price at which good tea can be packed, because they are 75 per cent, lowgrade teas."