Tea News and Biz Insight - October 22, 2021

HEAR THE HEADLINES – Sri Lanka Abandons Fertilizer Ban for Tea | Kenya’s KTDA Sets a Minimum Price for Auctioned Tea | AVPA Announces Teas of the World Winners| NEWSMAKER – Harkirat ”Harki” Sidhu, Rainforest Alliance India’s Consulting Program Coordinator for Sustainable Landscapes & Livelihoods| FEATURES – This week Tea Biz travels to Calcutta, India for an in-depth conversation with Harkirat (Harki) Sidhu, Rainforest Alliance India’s Consulting Program Coordinator for Sustainable Landscapes & Livelihoods. Harki is an expert in mechanical tea harvesters. He makes a compelling argument for improving tea quality utilizing labor hours that are gained by farms that invest in these time-saving machines.Mechanical Tea Harvesting Mechanical harvesting gets a bad rap. This is because poorly trained operators using poorly maintained equipment damage bushes, lowering yield and leaf quality. Simple routines such as level trimming in one direction in a single long sweep over half the plucking plane produces excellent leaf. Innovations like creating a seasonal calendar to regulate the gap between plucking rounds and paying workers for the area they shear, instead of by the kilo, keep yields high. Smallholders sharing equipment who then use the many hours of labor saved for field maintenance and to complete agricultural chores like pruning, mulching and weed abatement deliver raw leaf of exceptional quality to factories.

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