Tea is a plant that usually grows in the tropics and is one of the drinks that is very popular with the world community. Tea derived from the Camellia Sinensis plant or in Indonesia, tea from this type of acid is a plant that has many benefits. So where did the tea plant come from? Similar to coffee, tea was originally also cultivated by the Dutch when they colonized Indonesia. Tea can grow at constant temperature and humidity, and these conditions are very suitable for regions with tropical and subtropical climates in Asia, one of which is Indonesia so that Asia is the best place for world tea production and 60% of the world’s tea comes from the Asian plains.
Good tea growth is in the cold highlands, this tea plant can be harvested after 4 years. When harvesting, the tea leaves that are taken are only young leaves, more precisely only a few top shots that will be processed into tea drinks. In picking tea leaves, it will absorb a lot of labor because the best tea leaf picking is manually using human labor, not using machines so that the leaves taken are the best leaves to produce the best tea drinks too.
Indonesian Tea Production and Tea Export
Indonesia is also a country that is quite large in producing tea so that in its order Indonesia ranks seventh in tea production in the world. Indonesian tea is indeed more exported abroad even though the domestic market absorbs a lot of this tea. Most Indonesian tea comes from state-owned and private plantations, but some also come from small farmers. Indonesian tea is known to have the highest content of catechins (natural antioxidants) in the world, this is what causes Indonesian tea to be in great demand by the world’s population. In Indonesia, there are types of green tea and black tea, but most of the consumer demand is black tea. Tea plantations in Indonesia are spread over the islands of Java and Sumatra with an annual production of Indonesian tea of around 79,449 tons.
Indonesia exports quite a lot of tea every year. In Indonesia, there are several types of HS codes in tea export, namely for Green Tea (Green Tea) consisting of 4 HS codes, namely Green tea leaves (not fermented) in packages not exceeding 3 kg (HS Code 0902 10 10), Green tea other than Packaged leaf (unfermented) not exceeding 3 kg (HS Code 0902 10 90), Leaf green tea (unfermented) in packaging exceeding 3 kg (HS Code 0902 20 10) and Packaged green tea other than leaves (unfermented) exceeding 3 kg (HS Code 0902 20 90).
As for Black Tea, it consists of 4 HS codes, namely Black tea (fermented) and partially fermented leaf tea in packaging not exceeding 3 kg (HS Code 0902 30 10), Black tea (fermented), and partially fermented tea other than leaves in packaging not exceeding 3 kg (HS Code 0902 30 90), Black tea (fermented) and partially fermented leaf tea in packages exceeding 3 kg (HS Code 0902 40 10), and Black tea (fermented) and partially fermented tea other than leaves in packs exceeding 3 kg (HS Code 0902 40 90).
In 2015-2019, the most exported Indonesian tea was black tea with a quantity of 36,368 tons, while green tea was 6,443 tons.
West Sumatra Tea, Indonesia
West Sumatra is one of the provinces in Indonesia that produces quite a lot of tea. West Sumatra tea is also in great demand by the domestic community to the world community. In recent years, West Sumatran tea has been routinely exported to several Asian countries to Europe to help meet the tea needs of the world community. This tea in West Sumatra is directly processed by professionals, sophisticated machines, and trained workers. In picking the leaves, we still use human power so that the tea leaves that are taken are really good and the leaves are selected so that the tea obtained is of good quality.