Where does America get most of its tea? Statistics just released from the Tea Association of the United States indicate that the major tea producing countries continue their usual rankings in tonnage exported to the U.S.A through the first four months of this year.

World tea supplies have seen some disruption as producing countries deal with quarantines and logistical troubles. While there have been delays in getting tea from the gardens, into ports, through customs, and delivered to U.S.A. warehouses, there is not an immediate concern for sourcing the teas needed to satisfy current demand here.

TOP SOURCES FOR BLACK TEA

Argentina	42%
India	13%
Sri Lanka	7%
China	6.5%
Malawi	6%
Vietnam	5.5%
Kenya	2.5%

TOP SOURCES FOR GREEN TEA

China	35%
Japan	12.7%
Indonesia	12.7%
Taiwan	6.6%
Vietnam	5.6%
Argentina	4.7%
Sri Lanka	3.2%
India	2.6%
Thailand	2.5%

Dan Bolton, publisher of TeaJourney magazine, gave a comprehensive overview of the world tea marketplace to an online audience of the European Tea Society this month. He reported that tea production worldwide increased 61% between 2000 and 2014, with 3/4 of that growth occurring in China.

In 2020 China will dominate supply, producing 46% of the world’s tea, followed by India (20%), Kenya (7.5%), Sri Lanka (5%), and Vietnam (2.5%). These five produce 81% of global supply.

Turkey now grows 5% of the world’s tea, Indonesia (2%), Argentina (1.4%), Japan (1.3%), and Bangladesh (1.3%). Global land under tea is steady at 9.4 million acres with 4.7 million acres in China.

You may be wondering about the black tea chart above which shows Argentina as the number one supplier to The United States.

We can thank our unquenchable thirst for iced tea for that remarkable statistic.