AN EXCITING OPPORTUNITY AWAITS
The Australian Tea
Growers Co-operative.
Growing a new Australian farming opportunity.
Tea is not a new crop to Australia, in fact it is believed that the first small tea plantations in Australia date back to the late 1800’s.
The tea produced in Australia historically has been what we know as ‘black tea’ or fermented tea, and these days the main black tea plantations in Australia are in northern NSW and Queensland.
In comparison, the production of ‘green tea’ in Australia is a relatively new concept. Green tea (which is essentially made from the same plants as black tea via a different process) is popular throughout Asia and has been consumed for more than 5000 years.
During the 1990’s, several Japanese companies were looking at Australia as a potential site for the production of Japanese-style green tea. On the NSW Central Coast, Department of Primary Industries (DPI) was working with a Japanese company Kunitaro to conduct experimental trial farming of this interesting crop here in NSW.
Following on from these successful trials, Kunitaro established an Australian branch (Kunitaro Australia Pty Limited) and purchased 25 hectares in Mangrove Mountain, Central Coast, NSW, planted crops and built what is known as, a ‘crude’ (preliminary) processing plant from which they now harvest, process and ship high quality product back to Japan for final processing, packaging and shipping to the Japanese distribution and retail networks.
At about the same time, a group of farmers located around the Ovens Valley in Victoria were successfully growing plants on numerous farms and had formed a growers-group backed by Victoria State Government and Japanese owned company (Ito En Corp) based in Wangaratta, to produce green tea for the emerging Green Tea canned drinks market.
These two early initiatives led to numerous farming and economic studies producing several encouraging reports as to the viability of developing a new industry here in Australia for this centuries-old Asian dominated business.
Next Generation Farming
Tea farming is a form of on-farm diversification and could provide an opportunity to increase the long-term viability of farms, thereby encouraging the retention of the next generation of Australian farmers.
HOW IS TEA MADE?
Tea is typically made using the fresh young leaves of the tea plant. After harvesting, it is generally the processing that determines the style of tea produced. Each ‘style’ of tea has its own particular requirements, which dictates the specific economics for that style of tea production.
WORLD MARKETS
WORLD MARKETS
The world produces many different ‘styles’ of tea but they can be broadly grouped into 3 main categories;
GREEN TEA
BLACK TEA
OOLONG TEA
PROCESSING OPTIONS
At the moment, there is only one tea processing facility on the New South Wales Central Coast.
This facility is located at Mangrove Mountain and is owned and operated by Kunitaro Australia Pty Ltd. The facility specialises in making high quality, organic, Japanese-style green tea. Growers wishing to produce this high quality Japanese-style Green Tea under guidance from the Kunitaro Company, are encouraged to do so. The Co-op can assist with this interaction.
Alternatively, farmers who wish to grow non-organic green tea or other styles of tea (Chinese style, Oolong, Black tea etc) have several options available to them, including farmer-owned, on-farm processing or the development of alternate processing technologies and facilities.
AUSTRALIAN TEA COOPERATIVE
Discover how you can get involved and become a part of growing a new Australian farming opportunity.
Begin the journey today!
LATEST NEWS
Information Sessions
There will be experts from the tea industry to provide information and answer questions on the tea farming opportunity. Includes tea growing; the economics of tea farming; processing tea; overview of the newly formed coop.
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Company plans to establish tea growing co-op at Mangrove Mountain
The Australian Tea Growers Co-operative Limited THE rolling farmland of the Somersby Plateau could one day be covered in tea plantations if the vision of a local business comes true. Australian Green Tea Pty Ltd is in the process of establishing a tea-growing...
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