African Entrepreneurship Records

Chapter 655 Development status of tea industry

Ernst went to the Kidunda Mountain Weapons and Equipment Testing Ground. Generally speaking, he mainly visited various weapons and equipment tests. As for the "Military Vehicle Research Institute", it is basically an empty shelf now, but in the initial stage of the entire automobile industry It was easy to understand, so Ernst returned to the first town in less than a day.

 Finance Minister von der Leyen provided Ernst with a list of tea industries. In recent years, the tea industry has developed into one of the important industries in East Africa.

“In 1879, tea production in East Africa was second only to the Far Eastern Empire and India, but by 1882 our tea export volume climbed to the third position in the world for the first time. Last year, our industrial export volume was second only to the Indian tea area and the Far East tea area. The output reaches more than 22,000 tons, of which about 11,000 tons are exported. The output of the Far Eastern Empire should be around 100,000 tons, and that of India is around 20,000 tons. Our tea is mainly sold to Germany, Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean coast. (including North Africa), and the Middle East.”

Most of the increased tea exports in East Africa come from the help of the Hechingen Consortium. Because Central and Eastern Europe does not have the habit of tea like the British, let alone high-quality production areas like India, so if you want to expand the market, you must develop in Germany. The region invested in advertising and cooperated with dealers, and the export tea trade of the Far Eastern Empire was mostly monopolized by the British. Of course, the British mainland was also the largest consumer of exported tea.

 The overall quality of East African tea cannot compete with the tea producing areas of the first two countries, but there are advantages and disadvantages to each other, so it is not completely uncompetitive.

The first is the tea market controlled by East Africa such as Germany. The current world tea production is far less than that of later generations. In the past, the tea production in Kenya alone was higher than that of the Far Eastern Empire, India and East Africa. Therefore, the market volume is still very large, especially those that do not produce tea. Europe and the Arab region (Middle East and North Africa).

In the United Kingdom and Western Europe, the tea trade is mainly controlled by the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, which has a relatively large impact on Central and Eastern Europe. However, when the production of cheaper East African tea increases, it will have a great impact on the original tea market in Central and Eastern Europe, and it has now become the most important in East Africa. tea market.

In the Arabian region, mainly North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, East Africa also has certain advantages in the tea drinking market. In addition to sea lanes, land tea trade lanes are also prosperous in North Africa, especially the Arab caravans in the hinterland of the Sahara Desert.

East African tea was able to squeeze in on the Arabian Peninsula, thanks to the Omanis, also known as Zanzibar merchants. Oman is the most prosperous country in the Indian Ocean trade in the Arab region, so relying on the Zanzibar merchants, East African tea was able to enter. Arabian Peninsula and radiating to other regions.

Except for Central and Eastern Europe and the Arab region, East Africa cannot compete with the Far Eastern Empire and India in other regions. The Far Eastern Empire's independent tea business covers the entire East Asia and parts of Southeast Asia, Central Asia, and North Asia (Tsarist Russia is almost negligible). Due to taste and output reasons, the Indian tea area is still unable to compete with the Far Eastern Empire.

"Green tea does not need to be fermented, but it needs to be "greened." Greening means that after the fresh tea leaves are picked, they are fried, baked, sun-dried, or steamed to keep their original color and flavor as much as possible. However, the sales of this kind of tea in Europe are still higher than However, black tea is more popular in the Mediterranean region, with Austria and Italy being the main markets."

“On the contrary, black tea and dark tea products can generally be stored for a long time, and their aroma becomes more and more fragrant with age, making them very popular in overseas markets.”

“However, the domestic consumption of green tea in our country is higher than that of black tea. It is mainly immigrants from the Far East who incidentally introduced green tea culture to East Africa.”

Of course, the green tea culture in East Africa is a very common low-level folk tea culture. It is not as sophisticated as the wealthy families in the Far Eastern Empire, but it has also contributed greatly to the popularization of tea drinking in East Africa.

This kind of tea-drinking culture also deceives immigrants from the German region. Correspondingly, immigrants from the German region can also introduce the study of coffee to immigrants from the Far East.

 In fact, neither the two major immigrant groups have a deep understanding of tea or coffee. They are more exposed to the cultural environment of their own countries. “Tea trees can basically be grown in all of East Africa, especially the vast plateau areas in the east (Kenya, Malawi, Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique, etc.), which are all excellent tea producing areas. They are mainly divided into two parts, one is northern tea. district (Kenya) and one is the Southern Tea District (alongside Lake Malawi).”

“The northern tea area is our high-quality tea area in East Africa. Among the earliest batch of teas introduced, three tea varieties have become relatively mature after years of intensive cultivation.

In addition, the northern tea area has a unique kind of tea because of its high leaf integrity, bright color, flowery East African aroma, and slightly bitter taste. flavor, so it is more popular in Germany. Two of them are black tea and one is dark tea. The technology mainly replicates the technology of the Far Eastern Empire, but we are also researching related machinery and equipment to increase production without affecting the taste. . "

Thanks to the superior geographical conditions of the northern tea area, the average annual temperature is around 20 degrees, sufficient light, abundant precipitation, relatively few pests, an altitude of 1,500 meters, and slightly acidic volcanic ash. The soil makes the northern tea area an ideal source of high-quality highland tea.

Moreover, the tea trees in East Africa are evergreen all year round. Taking the northern tea area as an example, tea farmers will pick one round of tea leaves on average every two or three weeks in June and July every year; and during the golden season of tea picking in October every year, tea leaves will be picked for five or six days. It can be picked once, so East African tea can grow all year round without a dormant period, which makes East African tea more productive in the same area.

“This year we established the Mombasa Tea Auction House in Mombasa to provide bidding for businessmen from Austria, Germany, Oman and other countries.”

The northern tea region of East Africa has already formed a preliminary reputation. It belongs to God's gift of food. The same variety may be unknown in the Far East, but the taste is greatly improved in East Africa, and it has a Huainan-like flavor.

“The annual output of the southern tea area is about more than 4,000 tons, mainly producing black tea. The tea soup is clear and of medium-to-high quality. The tea species belong to Indian species, so the grading method is the same as that of Indian tea, and the tea blending method is also used.”

"In the southern tea-producing areas, the products are mainly sold to Western Europe under the brand name "Indian tea". We cooperate with Dutch tea merchants and sell them at a price that is 3% lower than the genuine Indian tea. However, including shipping costs, because Indian tea The region is mainly located in the northeast, so it is about a thousand kilometers longer than the East African route, which makes the cost of tea production in Malawi lower."

This can also be regarded as a strategy for East African tea exports. After all, East Africa is considered a new tea production area, so in the non-Hechingen Consortium’s core business areas, it is inevitable to rely on the reputation of the Far Eastern Empire or India, two relatively mature tea industries, to open up the market. .

Of course, copycat goods are not a long-term solution. East Africa is also working hard to develop its own tea brands. This is also the main task of the Northern Tea District. The Northern Tea District is the highest quality tea area in East Africa, especially the three types of tea that are already relatively mature in quality. , comparable to many teas from the Far Eastern Empire.

 So tea from the northern tea region has good sales in the German region by virtue of its price and quality advantages, and the price route is a focus of development for East African tea.

After all, judging from the development path of tea in the previous life, European and American countries are not very optimistic about the quality of tea, or they do not have the rich cultural heritage and atmosphere of tea in East Asia. Instead, tea brands produced and processed by large industries are more likely to be accepted. .

 (End of this chapter)