Some interesting statistics on tea production and consumption have come out of a recent biennial meeting of the FAO Intergovernmental Tea Group held in Hangzhou, China. Overall there has been growth across the past decade but regional trends show a clear change in the traditional and emerging markets. Europe continues to show a slight reduction in tea consumption with just Germany registering a measurable increase. The real drivers for growth are from China, India and other emerging economies.
China has seen year on year consumption grow by an average of 10% per annum over the last 30 years whilst markets across the rest of Asia, Africa and many Latin American countries also show good growth. Here in the UK whilst tea remains very popular there is a clear age demographic with many younger consumers selecting coffee as their hot beverage of choice. This has triggered reducing demand for traditional black tea although there has been growth in the consumption of both green tea and a range of herbal and fruit tea alternatives.
World tea consumption of both black and green tea had reached 5.5million tonnes by 2016 and is predicted to grow significantly over the next ten years to reach an estimated 8 million tonnes by 2027, with China alone likely to be producing volumes close to the total global output in 2016!
KSV Vending offer a good selection of teas from the UK’s favourite PG Tips, to green tea, herbal teas and most recently Taylors Yorkshire tea available with the Flavia Creation 500 drinks system.
Written By: Colin from KSV.