About wholesale tea prices
Emperor | December 27, 2009WHOLESALE TEA PRICES ARE GOING UP ALL OVER THE WORLD
African tea prices have risen about 5% year-on-year in the most of the producing countries, like Kenya, Uganda, Burundi etc. It doesn’t end there as reports from India, Sri Lanka and other countries in the Orient have claimed similar price increases. This is good news for the producers and doesn’t really affect consumers because of the raw material cost of a tea bag is something so little that you need a microscope to see it. What is driving up the wholesale tea or bulk tea prices? It could be popularity, tough weather conditions and opportunity costs or something else.
TEA IS BECOMING MORE AND MORE POPULAR
Tea is more than just a small part of the English breakfast. Today we have tea houses that are as much focused on tea as coffee shops on coffee. In this kind of establishments you can get a cup of regular coffee if you insist but that’s about it. It is safe to say that tea has taken hold of other parts of the world than just East and that small right hand corner of an English breakfast table.
WEATHER CHANGES BRING UNCERTAINTY OVER TEA CROPS
Global warming or not the fluctuating weather patterns over the globe have made it even more uncertain to farm cash crops. This year Africa has seen lot of droughts and that has increased tea prices more than what they would have risen given the increased global demand for tea. Storms also do their trick as heavy rains soak the bushes.
TEA HAS TO COMPETE WITH OTHER CASH CROPS
Tea farmers are running businesses and they make cultivation decisions based on the return for their investment. World market prices make sure that some years tea is not very profitable while other crops might do very well indeed. This affects to cultivation decisions, farmers might swap into other plants or new farmers might initially choose something else than tea farming. Many a time tea’s biggest competitor is not coffee but some fruit for example.
FUTURE TEA PRICES?
Let me consult the tea leaves on the bottom of my tea cup… Ah, it looks like some changes will take place.
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