Nerada spills the tea on lockdown, trade deal, celebrates 50th anniversary

Tea is an essential during lockdowns, which has helped Australia’s biggest homegrown brand to a bumper year.

Nerada Tea Plantation Director, Tony Poyner. Picture: Alison George

For third generation tea producer John Russell, a cuppa is more than a soothing hot beverage — it’s a way of life.

The family run business Nerada Tea is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the release of its branded Australian grown black tea, and for Mr Russell there is plenty to look forward to in what has at times been a challenging business.

“We’re pretty proud of it. Like any agricultural business to survive 50 years is something you can pat yourself on the back for,” he said.

“We have a very loyal following, especially in rural Australia, and we have always been very thankful for that.”

From tentative beginnings in the 1880s Bingil Bay in Far North Queensland the Australia tea industry was a stop start affair until the 1950s when it established itself in the Nerada Valley at the foothills of the Atherton Tablelands. It was from there that Nerada Tea released its first branded product in 1971.

Nerada Tea chairman John Russell.

The Russell family got involved with Nerada a bit later, although they have been involved in the sector since the 1920s, with grandfather John Archibald having established the Malaysian tea industry and the country’s largest brand BOH Tea.

Mr Russell’s father Tristan settled in Australian in the 1960s and over time established plantations but it was not until the 1990s when they purchased the Nerada Brand and Brisbane packing factory to form a new company called Nerada Tea Pty Ltd.

With sister Caroline, who is the executive chair of BOH Tea in Malaysia, they hold the controlling share of Nerada Tea which currently has a range of products from black tea to green tea and white tea and a long list of infusions.

Pesticide free, the company has 320ha of tea under cultivation on its plantation on the Atherton Tablelands near Malanda 85km south west from Cairns in Far North Queensland and they package their product at Acacia Ridge in Brisbane.

Nerada produces about 85 per cent of the black tea grown in Australia. They are fully automated and typically harvest more than 6.6 million kilograms of green leaf per year, which makes about 1.6 million kilograms of black tea annually, or more than 750 million cups annually.

Sun on the Nerada Tea plantation on the Atherton Tablelands in Far North Queensland.

Mr Russell, who is chairman of Nerada Tea, said they have about 85 workers across the plantation and packing areas and their annual revenue is about $20m. They currently export about 15 per cent of their product, mainly to New Zealand.

Mr Russell said Nerada Tea was the largest producer of black tea in Australia.

And with greater investment in its innovative harvesting and production techniques, and with the UK Free Trade Agreement on the way, the homegrown tea brand has its sights set on overseas growth.

“The UK market is very similar to the Australian market in terms of people’s tea drinking habits so that it’s an obvious place for us to sell our regular tea but also our special herbal beverages we also make,” Mr Russell said.

“We see a real opportunity with this Free Trade Agreement … and the Irish are big tea drinkers as well.

“There is room to expand on the Atherton Tablelands with available land to cater for growth but do so it needs to be market driven and we hope this spark that.”

Nerada loose leaf black tea

Mr Russell said the tea industry has to move with the times to take advantage of an expanding market.

“Most of our consumers are in an older demographic and they like black tea. The younger people are much more interested herbal varieties and things like camomile, peppermint, lemon and ginger.

“Actually the younger generation are much more interested in experimenting with different flavours.

“We have been exploring a concentrate to make bottled drinks which we are seeing as the big thing in the consumption of tea. It’s all about convenience.

“Having said that we find that all older people want is a cup of tea and don’t want anyone to mess around with it.”

While the Covid-19 pandemic has hurt many industries they fact that a nice warm cuppa is seen as a necessity by many, ensured 2020 was a good year.

“We were actually treated quite kindly by Covid,” Mr Russell said.

“We were in the toilet roll category. People rushed out and decided they didn’t want to be stuck at home without their cuppa. They bought in the panic buying period quite a lot of tea and our supplies were hammered but we didn’t run out of stock.