Transportation of Processed Tea

Sri Lanka

Tea leaves are sent to the processing centre either directly from plantations or through bought leaf suppliers.

Impact:

Sri Lanka’s largest exporter of Ceylon tea is Akbar Brothers and Hayleys. Ceylon Tea manufacturers and Ceylon Tea suppliers control a large share of the global tea market.

China

Tea leaves are put into airtight containers that are checked for contamination, and are shipped as exports to main foreign markets such as Russia, Morocco (highest importer of Chinese tea), Japan, and the United Kingdom. Tea is exported with minimal processing to importing countries, where it is blended by tea companies. It is at these tea companies where they make the ‘ready for use’ tea for the consumers. I was actually surprised when I read that China has recently been trying to export their tea to countries with minimal imports such as Morocco.

India

Tea is shipped via truck and railroad throughout India for its own consumption, but for exporting of tea, ships are primarily used. Tea is shipped in standard containers, but these must be watertight, not contaminated and need to be stowed below the deck of the ship in order to prevent exposure to rain or seawater or excessively hot or cold temperatures during shipping. Darjeeling tea is generally “air freighted” in order to ensure quicker delivery to corporations for finishing or to consumers.

Main tea shipping ports in India : Jawaharlal Nehru Port, New Mangalore, Kochi, Kolkata-Haldia, Chennai (black squares on google map above).  Indian tea is mainly exported to the United Kingdom (including Great Britain), Russia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. (yellow circles on google map above)

Social Issues

Shipping in general worldwide represents about 80% of global trade because it is still the most efficient and cost efficient means of transporting large quantities of goods over a long distance, but there is an environmental impact with 50,000 cargo ships at any on the earth’s ocean emitting 1 billion tonnes of CO2 per (total shipping not just India) (Forum for Future, carbon load)

In addition, the risk of an oil spill and pollution from the ship (ie. sewage, waster materials that are dumped into the ocean) add to the overall pollution caused by ships used for export. Forum for the Future is an non profit organization that is backing organizations such as the Sustainable Shipping Initiative (SSI) which brings some of the biggest companies in the maritime sector together to create a sustainable and successful shipping industry in the future.

“Jonathon Porritt from the Sustainable Shipping Initiative, suggests that the shipping industry would have to be 95% de-carbonized by 2050 as part of global efforts to prevent global warming reaching dangerous levels.” (Forum for the future, shipping) Initiatives include activities focused on voyage optimisation, wind assistance and air lubrication in order to re-invent the current shipping industry and reduce its carbon footprint on the world and use resources more efficiently and responsibly. (SSI)