South-Eastern Asia belongs among the fastest developing tea regions. The most important local producers are Indonesia and Vietnam. The high-quality teas, given only to the local markets and hence totally unknown in the West are produced in Burma and Thailand, a little amount of not very good black tea is also produced in Malaysia.
Indonesia
The archipelago stretching between Malaysia and Papua-New Guinea produces tea in the tropical and humid climate of Java and Sumatra islands in the high altitudes and mainly in soils of the volcanic origin. The harvests take place all the year round on the both islands. Sumatra has got equable precipitation amount and therefore its teas have got almost constant quality. Java has got unequal climate, there is very dry weather from July to September here, tea leaves grow much slower than in other seasons and the character of tea produced in this harvest differs from teas, produced in months with regular rains. The region produces mostly black tea, but it is possible to find also green and half-green teas
Vietnam
Located near southern border of Chinese Yunnan Province has scored a huge expansion of the local tea industry recently. The tea plant is cultivated in mountain and high-mountain regions of the Thái Nguyen Province, north of Hanoi, in the central highland, and to a lesser extent also in the southern part of the country. The best quality teas come from the northern high-mountain areas near the border with China. The region produces green, half-green and black teas, especially the high-mountain green teas reach the first grade quality.
Africa
belongs among the most prominent tea producers, especially by the quantity of the production. The most important tea regions are located near the eastern and western costs of the continent, in areas with very warm and humid climate. The harvests take place practically all year round (during the culminant vegetative period even every other week), because the leaves grow very fast, even in very high altitudes. These climatic conditions mean only a favourable factor with respect to quantity, however, they also mean very low quality of produced teas. The attempts to cultivate the tea plant in regions with less convenient climatic conditions met lots of problems, hot and dry weather enables harvesting only in certain times of year, whereas the production quality is usually even lower. The region produces mainly black teas, the eastern cost produces also green teas, expendable primarily in Mediterranean countries.
The most important African producer in both terms of quality and quantity is Kenya, whose best production regions are situated in the Kenya Highlands, in altitudes of 1.600 to 3.000 m. The microclimate of this area is influenced by the proximity of Lake Victoria, so the weather is not only very hot, but also humid enough with favourable precipitation amount. The harvests take place all year round, however, the best tea is produced during the harvest taking place in the break of January and February and in July. Kenya is the only African producer offering the leaf grade tea and very high-quality teas of broken type. The other important African producers are Cameroon, Tanzania, Malawi and especially the South African republic. American continent
is generally not a very important tea producer, regarding both quality and quantity. The tea plant is cultivated in tropical and subtropical climate with sufficient humidity and moisture. The leaves grow very fast under such conditions, so the harvests are quite frequent and they are carried on by machines. The most important production regions are the Misiones Province, producing 95% of Argentinean tea, the areas south of Sao Paulo in Brazil and Cusco and Huanuco in Peru; little tea gardens exist also in Ecuador and one tea plantation belonging until recently to Lipton Company is located in the USA. This region produces exclusively black tea, usually processed by the CTC method, whose quality is convenient for blends preparation and for tea bags and instant teas production.
Oceania
regarding quantity) is Papua – New Guiney where tea bushes have got totally ideal soil conditions, supported by humid tropical climate. The largest plantations are situated in the western highland, in the altitudes higher than 2.000 m. The harvests take place all year round, producing exclusively black tea, processed mostly by the CTC method. The other, less important producer of this area is Australia, but the tea plant does not prosper very well here. The region produces mainly black tea and on a small scale also green tea, which is processed by the Japan technology.
Middle East
There are four main tea producing regions here – Turkey, Iran, Russia and the Caucasus part of Georgia and Azerbaijan. In countries of the former Soviet Union, where the tea plant is cultivated in hospitable and humid enough climate and it is harvested exclusively with machines in rather short intervals from May to October, the tea industry reached its peak before the East block breakdown, but in the last ten years the local production has been on the fast decline, regarded both quality and mainly quantity, which appears from a perspective of the world tea production totally unimportant. In Turkey the tea plant is cultivated in Rize region near the border with Georgia. The yearly production outreaches 100.000 tons of exclusively black tea, reserved usually for the home market and exported only on a small scale. In Iran the tea plant is cultivated exclusively for home market, but unlike in Turkey it is mainly green tea.
