Market prospects and problems

of a new tea industry

/hat are the market prospects and problems of the infant New Guinea tea industry? PIM asked a well nown firm of tea experts for some answers and for predictions based on their experience. The firm repared this article for the Practical Planter section.

What are the market prospects for New Guinea tea, and how should it be manufactured?

Jow that New Guinea is becoming involved in tea production these questions are important, 'he problems are going to be many, for world tea consumption is getting lower, prices are fall ig and the supply of tea increasing. Yet the problems for New Guinea are not insurmountable.

about 12 to 18 months there will probably be between one million two million pounds of New iea tea to be disposed of, and it lot be stressed strongly enough important it is that only high ity New Guinea tea should be on the London market. First » will affect future sales.

'e would recommend that New tie a tea be withheld from the don market as long as possible I the quality tea is made that f Guinea can, without doubt, luce due to her ideal climatic iitions. In the meantime teas ild be disposed of locally in New nea, or privately in Australia, or taps as far afield as Hong Kong, ;apore and Japan. But not, we at, in London, although there be no doubt that the future t lie in London.

Australian quality

is obvious that the Australian ket does not buy the best teas he world, and even New Zealand 5 a higher standard tea than Aus a. The average price for teas keted in Australia at the moment omewhere between 27c and 35c lb. idonesia is making its teas of a ier quality month by month and e are available to the Australian ket at 25 cents and 30 cents per We must not forget the friendship trade developing between Aus ia and Indonesia, which is a very e tea-producing country.

Lis in itself strongly supports our v on the importance of the idon market, where high quality is bought. New Guinea can pro e tea as good as. and better than, best teas available from Ceylon, ch is commanding and always has

commanded extremely high prices at the London auctions.

Type of manufacture

In the meantime the type of manu facture best suited to New Guinea must be decided on. There are many different types of manufacture, but we will discuss four main types:

Orthodox

This means using conventional rolling, hard withering. At the moment this method is still widely used on Ceylon estates, but this is being superseded by the Rotovane, or continuous type, manufacture and we would therefore not recommend orthodox manufacture for New Guinea.

C.T.C.

This is being used throughout the Assam and Dooars districts of North India. As these estates are situated at near sea level and are in no way similar to New Guinea, we would not recommend this type of manu facture. There is no doubt that the main advantage of C.T.C, manufac ture as used in North India is that some automation is possible, and where tremendous rushes, i.e. large crops, are harvested for two or three months of the year with as much as 100,000 to 200,000 lb of leaf per day, C.T.C. is suitable. But with the even distribution of rainfall and climatic conditions of New Guinea, rushes will not be a problem. Any way, at the moment, Australian buyers are not willing to accept large quantities of C.T.C., and therefore we feel that C.T.C. will have to be ruled out.

Practical Planter

Rotovane/C.T.C.

This type of manufacture is proving most successful in Africa, parts of South India and in the low grown states of Ceylon, but again we feel that the same arguments as used for C.T.C. manufacture can be applied for this, and we would not recommend it.

Rotovane/Orthodox

This we feel would be the type of manufacture suited to New Guinea, It would produce a quality tea without reducing the size of the leaf to dust, and the end product would be acceptable for both Aus tralia and overseas. The better quality teas could be sold overseas and the poorer teas in Australia.

Experiments needed

The fact is that only by experiment can the real answer be found on the most suitable manufacture for New Guinea. The next 12 to 18 months should be used for experiments before people commit themselves to spending a large amount of money.

In Ceylon there is a Tea Research Institute and there are experimental stations at present working in Africa —bodies backed by the various gov ernments—but we feel that New Guinea has got an opportunity to start its own experimental station immediately in the Highlands and this would be of tremendous benefit to the whole industry. There is no reason why tea, like coffee, shouldn’t be one of New Guinea’s best exports and a mere $1 million or $2 million spent by the Government at the out set would have great advantages in the long run.

And now let us look at some of

tactical Planter

other considerations for a New lea tea industry. an a new tea industry survive out a Government subsidy ar to the one for coffee? We ve it can. ost of production will of course ugh, and it will go higher as lards for the New Guinea worker The New Guinea worker now aid 70 cents a day, against the an or Ceylonese labourer’s wage M-\ but oil costs 70 cents a >n against 15 cents in India, e are enormous costs of air and freight in New Guinea and the of producing a pound of New lea tea will be excessive. Cost reduction in New Guinea could letween 25 cents and 35 cents lb.

Could be profitable

ill, we see no reason why quality should not be manufactured h will fetch a price of 50 cents 0 cents per lb on the London :et. Even with high freight rates Australia and London, New lea tea could be sold profitably, e presume that freight rates will jduced once an all-weather road ailt between the Highlands and coast. This road should surely bring down the cost of oil, food, ling materials and other es als. ;w Guinea should look into the sr of a tea association. There is in New Guinea at present, iugh we believe that two such Nations are being discussed. This lost unfortunate, because New ea should have a united tea >try if it is to avoid the problems ed throughout the rest of the tea 1 nally, the first sale of any large tity of New Guinea tea has itly been completed—4,ooo lb airumul tea sold into Australia very reasonable price. Let us that this will be a forerunner mny more sales in Australia.