Climate Hot Map

The Union of Concerned Scientists has written about the relationship between coffee and climate change (Starbucks also has a climate change page, which actually might be more comprehensive, even if it is a bit self-serving). Although tea and coffee differ in many ways, some of the same concerns affect both industries. What can the tea industry learn from coffee, regarding climate change?

The UCS created Climate Hot Map (this is just a snapshot) to help people learn about the variety of impacts climate change is having worldwide. The map has just a few dozen examples so far, including several related to coffee. I have not found tea on this map yet -- perhaps our class can contribute to the map.

As Mary Robinson has pointed out, climate change is already revealing -- at a global scale -- both differences in the physical effects of climate change and differences in the vulnerability of people to those effects.

Japanese Tea

Japanese Tea is a 1.3 billion dollar market and only three percent of its tea leaves the country. The rest of the tea is consumed everyday by its people, whether casually or apart from the Japanese tea ceremony it is a beloved drink in Japan.

However, Japan's tea industry has gone through some rough times after an earthquake on march 11, 2011 that lead to nuclear radiation tainting many tea leaves. The industry has made a come back from this devastating disaster. But Japan's newest problem is with climate change, the country has undergone a rise in temperature. Figures from the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) show that annual average air temperatures nationwide rose by a rate equivalent to 1.15°C per century between 1898 and 2010. This is considerably higher than the global average temperature rise of 0.74°C over the last century (according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s “Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report Summary for Policymakers”).

Japan has one of the fastest rising temperatures in the world and it has been causing plants to flower earlier each spring and, counter intuitively, insects are appearing later. Perhaps because their pupal stages need a certain period of chilling in order to develop, so with winters getting warmer they take longer to develop. In addition, species’ ranges the physical areas they inhabit are expanding northward by between 18 km and 140 km per decade.

Nepali Tea

Nepal is a small but very important tea producing country in South Asia that has diverse topography and climate and is home to the highest point on Earth, Mount Everest, and the Himalayas.

Click here and here to read more about the physical aspects of Nepal.

Above is a map of the current tea growing regions of Nepal which include Dhankuta, Illam, Jhapa, Therathum, and Panchthar. Even though 80% of Nepal's land can support tea growth, these are the regions that are growing tea presently.

Nepal exports Orthodox tea, which is hand-processed tea or tea that is rolled with machinery that imitates hand-processing (1). There are many types of Nepali Orthodox tea: Silver, Tippy, Golden, Wiry, Orange, Pokoe, and Broken. These teas are all First Flush (Easter Flush) (2).

As of January 2010, Nepali tea was deemed free of pesticide residue and within exportable quality level by the Department of Food Technology and Quality Control (DTFQC). To read more on this, click here.

Test map

Rwandan Tea

 Rwandan Tea 

Rwanda Mountain Tea

Rwanda is a small country in Africa that shares its borders with the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Tanzania and Burundi.

While Rwanda is most known for the genocide that took place back in 1994 between the Hutu and the Tutsi tribes, today Rwanda is a country with thriving tea production.

Currently, there are three companies using the land in Rwanda for their tea production, these are the Rwandan Mountain Tea Company, The Excellent Tea Company and the Yorkshire Tea Company.

Climate Change In Vietnam

Climate Change Conditions in Vietnam

"Vietnam has also seen a significant rise of approximately 2° C in temperatures in 2011/2012, compared to average temperatures recorded for 2006-2010. And as elsewhere, rainfall has been erratic with drastic variations in distribution and rainfall patterns. Rainfall recorded in the past 30 years shows an average of 1,500mm but the total for 2012 was at an all-time low of 884mm followed by 2,003mm in 2011. And the uneven distribution of rainfall has resulted in a greater frequency of drought in some plots, since Vietnam is solely dependent on rainfall and irrigation facilities cannot be put into effect due to the elevation and the undulating terrain. The country has also experienced water logging in low-lying areas, damage by lightning to shade trees during the rainy season, and the unpredictable rainfall has had an impact on such practices as fertilizer application, pest management, young tea management, weed management, etc. Variations in weather and rainfall distribution during monsoons have also led to higher incidents of pests and diseases, and a wider use of pesticides and chemicals has had serious consequences on the marketing of Vietnamese teas in the West."

http://www.stir-tea-coffee.com/index.php/latest-issue/features/721-climate-change-and-tea-production

Vietnam's Northern Tea Producing Regions are bordered by 

China's largest Tea Producing Regions (Yunnan and Guangxi). 

Vietnamese Tea: Pesticides Are Endangering Market Expansion

Vietnamese Tea Market Expansion

If you live in the United States or a country of the European Union, then you probably have never tasted or even heard of Vietnamese tea. This is due to the fact the Vietnamese famers in the tea industry use pesticides that have been outlawed by consumer protection laws in western nations and countries and in the European Union. 

The main reason for the use of these harmful pesticides is that the cheap pesticides are highly effective at producing copious amount of successful product. The tea produced is sold to large companies, for example Folgers, and these companies use this tea in their product at specific amounts as filler, per specific consumer safety regulations by the FDA and other regulatory agencies. 

So, there is a high incentive for tea farmers to use pesticides, but they cut their market to only large corporations. There are efforts being made by the Vietnamese government to set up incentives for farmers to limit their use of pesticides, but they are only in the beginning sets to start such programs.

Vietnamese Famers Harvesting Tea Leaves

http://vietnamnews.vn/economy/245989/tea-industry-needs-to-plan-for-the-future.html

However, there is another side to Vietnamese tea:

"According to the customs of Vietnamese people, on moonlit nights, devotees set their boats on the lake and ponds when the lotus flowers are in bloom. They open the about-to-bloom lotus flowers and place a lot of tea inside each blossom, then close them with ribbon or string. Then they get the moonlit dew from the lotus leaves. By dawn, the living scent of lotus impregnates the tea , and the gatherers have enough dew to add to their teapots. After a few hours of sleep, they enjoy a blissful afternoon of tea." 

Tea and Climate change in Uganda

Uganda is the third largest producer of tea in Africa. This year alone it has grown 120 million pounds of tea. For years weather has always had a huge impact on the countries' ability to grow tea. Due to the weather changes such as droughts, conditions on land have worsened, and thus prices in necessities like fertilizer have increased.

According to research conducted on the future climate of Uganda, a report by CIAT has found that tea production is going to become worse as the years progress. Researchers are finding that the overall climate change within Uganda is drastically changing, and will affect the stability of tea growing areas in the country by 2020. Although a temperature increase of 1ºC may not seem like a lot, it is enough to reduce the overall production of tea from 80% to 40%. Although there are many regions where the land is not as affected from the climate change, these areas are protected and are inaccessible for growing tea.

"Future Climate Scenarios for Uganda's Tea Growing Areas." International Center for Tropical Agriculture. http://dapa.ciat.cgiar.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Future-Climate-Scenarios-for-Uganda-Tea-2011-07-19_.pdf. 

Ojambo, Fred. "Uganda Sees Tea Production Unchanged in 2013 on Erratic Weather."  Bloomberg L.P. 11 January, 2013. Web. 20 April 2014. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-11/uganda-sees-tea-production-unchanged-in-2013-on-erratic-weather.html.

Lipton's Sustainable Tea Agriculture Project in Turkey

Sustainable Tea Agriculture Project Launches in Turkey

Turkey is the world's fifth largest tea producing country in the world, and has the fourth largest tea market. However, growing tea as it is grown previously in Turkey is not the most sustainable and therefore not the most efficient way to grow tea in Turkey. Unilever's Lipton brand has started a sustainable tea agriculture project that has launched in Turkey for this reason, and because Turkey is one of the company's main centers of tea agriculture. Lipton has teamed up with the Rainforest Alliance to introduce measures aimed at improving the "social, economic and environmental impacts of tea production"(1).

Training Tea Growers in Sustainable Practices

According to Unilever's website, 15,000 Turkish tea growers will receive one-to-one training to help them move to sustainable agricultural practices by 2014 under this initiative – and eventually become Rainforest Alliance certified. Also, 2,000 training sessions will provide tea growers with information on sustainability-related topics such as erosion control, waste management, work safety, record-keeping, biodiversity, fertilization and pruning (1). Lipton will also join forces with the Regional Chamber of Agriculture to establish a soil analysis laboratory in the country's tea-growing region near the Black Sea to solve the nations dilemma of poor fertilizer use. Lastly, Lipton will also take tea growers' health into consideration, providing around 5,000 women growers with health services targeting back, spine, and joint pain (1).

References: (1) "Lipton's Sustainable Tea in Turkey." Unilever Global Company Website.<http://www.unilever.com/brands-in-action/detail/Lipton-s-sustainable-tea-in-    Turkey/292029/>. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.

Tea Harvesting Elevations in Indonesia

Tea Harvesting Elevations in Indonesia

Geography of the Region

Indonesia produces several kinds of tea.The different taste of the tea is highly dependent on the type of climate that the tea is grown in. As climate change alters global temperatures, the taste of tea in Indonesia will change dramatically. It may be possible to predict how severe this change will be using estimated global temperature changes and elevation data of the region.

Elevation Data on Tea Producing Provinces

Tea cultivation is also dependent on a type of weather phenomenon known as Orographic lift. An Orographic lift occurs when an air mass moves across terrain and is forced from a low elevation to a high elevation rapidly and causes changes in precipitation to areas that are close to mountains. Changes in global climate temperatures may have a serious impact on this process in tea growing regions. Deeper analysis into the types of areas that may be prone to this weather process should be considered when looking into Indonesia's vulnerability to climate change. (http://ratetea.com/topic/climate-geography/55/) 

West Java Tea Harvest Elevations

The Blue and Red Lines in this Google Earth App show the lowest (Blue) and highest (Red) best elevations for tea cultivation in Western Java Indonesia. Based on information from The Tea Detective (http://theteadetective.com/TeasOfIndonesia.html), the best tea is grown at 2,500 to 5,000 feet or 762 to 1524 meters in Indonesia. According to the site, 70% of Indonesian tea is grown in Western Java.

The green in this Google Earth App shows the area within 760 to 1500 meters that would be available for tea cultivation in Western Java. As the average temperature of the region warms due to climate change, the amount of available land to cultivate tea may decrease as the criteria-specific growing area rises higher in elevation and steeper gradients make it difficult to grow crops.

Central Java 

According to ratetea.com (http://ratetea.com/topic/climate-geography/55/), the highest commercial tea plantations operate at 2400 meters. This map shows a blue elevation contour at 2400 meters in Cenral Java. The elevation indicates that the tea plantaions would likely be located very far off the ground and off the side of mountains in the region.

Starting

This is about the FAO. It is part of the UN.