WORLD’S TEA TRADE

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 May 1938, Page 11

WORLD’S TEA TRADE

UNAFFECTED BY WAR The war in China seems so far to have had surprisingly little effect on the world’s tea trade. Fifty years ago it might have been disastrous. In those days China dominated the trade. Since then some of the biggest markets have turned to stronger teas, though Russia still depends on the Chinese supply. The British drink chiefly black tea from India and Ceylon. The American supply comes from Formosa, China, Japan and Java, but imports and oom sumption have been dropping. In 25 years consumption has fallen from nine-tenths of a. pound per capita per annum to around seven-tenths. Among the non-producing nations, the British drink more tea than all the rest of the world put together. Britain, New Zealand, Australia and Ireland consume an average of from 91b to 7-Hb per head per annum and are thus in a class by themselves among the countries that grow no tea. The British, imports amount to more than 100,000,0001 b a year. Nowadays only about 10,000,0901 b of this comes from China. In 1923 the/ United States imports were more than a Quarter of the British and' now'they are around 95,550,0001 b. There .is no way of estimating how much tea the Chinese themselves consume. They are usually regarded as the greatest tea-drinkers in the world. So far the only effect of the war on the London tea trade is that supplies from Chiua are bought by the big firms as soon, as they arrive. Normally they go into bonded storage until they are wanted.