Tea News and Biz Insight - October 1, 2021

HEAR THE HEADLINES – Kenya Exports Saturate the World’s Black Tea Market | COVID Depresses Japanese Tea Business in Unique Ways | Unilever is Recognized as the Top Food and Agriculture Benchmark 

| NEWSMAKER – Mohit Agarwal Managing Director of the Asian Tea Group, owners of Cha de Magoma and the Monte Metilile brand 

| GUEST – Supply chain and procurementexpert John Snell, principal at NM Tea B, Toronto | FEATURES – This week Tea Biz travelsto Monte Metilile in Mozambique, a country along the southern coast of EastAfrica where Mohit Agarwal Managing Director of the Asian Tea Group has revived an abandoned 15,000-acre tea estate to demonstrate the viability of organic farming at scale... and then we talk with supply chain and procurement expert John Snell about what makes Mozambique such an exceptional tea-producing region. 

Producing Organic Tea at Scale 

Mozambique is the best-kept secret in the tea world, says Mohit Agarwal, Managing Director, the Asian Group. This growing region has beenhidden for centuries. With 6,325 acres under tea, Monte Metilile, located inGúruè, in Zambezia province, is the world’s largest bio-organic tea garden anda success story that demonstrates the many advantages of scale in producinggreat-tasting, high-quality, clean teas. “Farming organic at scale is applyingthe required size to solve the problem,"" he says. 

Mozambique is God's Country for Tea

A century ago, when the Portuguese first planted tea in Gúruè,Mozambique they found gentle, well-drained slopes of rich red volcanic soils at1,500 to 3,600 feet elevation – identical to the altitude of India’s Darjeelingmid-tier gardens. The climate is cool and dry from May to September and hot andhumid between October and April. Annual rainfall averages more than 3,000millimeters. By 1950 production exceeded 20,000 metric tons a year and there was more land under tea in Mozambique than any country in Africa."

Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/tea-biz/donations

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy