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Importing and Exporting tea

From Meiji era to Taisho era, green tea was a very important export item in Japan. Once Japan widely expanded the tea field in Makinohara for the large demands of the world market. The highest export amount was recorded as 31,000 tons in 1922, and they were mainly shipped to North America. However, the tea exporting was continuing to decrease, and hit the bottom to 200 tons in 1991. Recently, the growing interest in the health benefits of green tea has lead to an increased consumption of green tea in the U.S. and Germany. In 1999,800 tons high quality green teas were exported to those countries. The amount of importing green tea has also been increasing. It is reported in 1999, 12,000 tons green teas were imported to Japan, mainly from China. That covers 12% of our total domestic green tea consumption. Also, 13,800 tons black tea, and 23,400 tons oolong tea are imported from other countries. Currently, the total amount of the imported tea is approximately 50,000 tons a year. Since total consumption on any kind of tea is 90,000 tons a year, it means 1/3 of teas we consume are imported from other countries. World total amount of importing and exporting tea is 1,292,000 tons a year, and it is 44 % of the world total tea production. The total of green tea importing / exporting is 126,000 tons a year, which takes only 10%.

Country name/ Year 1980 (tons)/ Year 1997 (tons)/ Ratio (1997/1980)

Sri Lanka/185,000/268,000/144%

China/129,000/205,000/159%

India/225,000/203,000/90%

Kenya/75,000/199,000/265%

Argentine/28,000/58,000/207%

England/24,000/31,000/129%

*FAO [ Production Year Book]

(Yasukazu Kawashima)