STiR coffee and tea magazine

14 STiR coffee and tea / Issue 3, 2018 (June / July) Q&A Q A By Dan Bolton During three decades as a product developer and trouble shooter, Nigel Melican has earned a reputation for applying an artful mastery of technology and insight that has improved tea manufacturing in 26 countries. His focus is mechanization, yet he has empowered countless small farmers with techniques for handmade tea production and market- ing. He encourages the use of sustainable growing practices and manufac- turing methods while insisting that profitable tea production does not require exploitative wages or dismal working conditions. He is passionate in support of tea cultivation in non-traditional countries. Melican was instrumental in the founding of the U.S. League of Tea Growers but is no less influential in India where he serves as the D.N. Borboa Chair for tea quality and manufacturing at the Tea Research Institute in Jorhat, Assam. He is the 2018 recipient of the John Harney Lifetime Achieve- ment Award. Teacraft, the UK-based consultancy that he established in 1990 benefits from his engineering skills evident in the award-winning Teacraft ECM system for miniature manufacture of black and green tea, now used by leading tea producers and tea research institutes worldwide. In February 2018 Melican delivered the keynote address at the UC Davis Global Tea Initiative's 3rd annual symposium. STiR: In your presentation "Tea in the Future – A Bumpy Ride" you make the case that the tea industry is set to change more during the next 20 years than it has in the last 200, and arguably in the last 2000. Melican: In today's world tea appears to be doing very well. Production has been on a steady upward trend for the past 20 years. There is buoyant demand based on product innovation and health benefits. In producing countries, including India and China, a rising middle class is spending more on quality tea. In today's world tea is sitting pretty but, as responsible stakeholders in this industry, we must look closely at tomor- row's world. There are issues on the horizon, challenges that are not yet being addressed, nor yet even recognized. Chal- lenges that will alter the tea industry and change tea as we know it. Sustainability is the goal, but I fear STiR: Will you summarize the most troubling of these challenges? Melican: There are both internal and external concerns. Impelling external challenges include urbanization, population growth, increasing land scarcity, climate volatility. By 2015 population growth alone, according to the UN, will require 65% more food production to feed the additional 3 billion mouths predicted: this will threaten non-essential beverage crop growing. Internally there are fundamental changes affecting the workforce, the production process, the position- ing of tea, and the product itself. Future tea scarcity is a real concern even without land competition. Kenya, Sri Lanka, and China grow 61% of the tea traded internationally. Exports have plateaued for several years. India was for decades one of the top three tea exporting countries. It took 100 years for India's middle classes to drink enough to significantly reduce the tea available for export. Kenya might only take 30 years for the same to happen. Kenyans consume only 6.2% of their tea. If Kenyans drank 80% of their annual harvest, as China and India now do, there would be a 400,000 metric ton shortfall on the world market― equal to a 21% reduction in global supply. STiR: You mention a great divide is becoming apparent with commodity tea driving down quality in exchange for a low price. Melican: As an example, look at the prices per serving of typical (Tesco) supermarket beverages. Tea sells for one-third the price of coffee. Juice sells for 38 cents per serving and dairy for 39 cents per serving, bottled water averages 18 cents per serving— Nigel Melican

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