New Australian Tea Growers Co-operative seeks members
THE newly formed Australian Tea Growers Co-operative has begun recruiting for growers to join a venture which could put the Central Coast on the global green tea map.
Central Coast
Don't miss out on the headlines from Central Coast. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- The piece of paper that could create new jobs
- Coast’s largest medical practice opens new health centre
- Miracle turtle babies saved from dead mum
- Millionaire developer’s ultimatum: approve or I’ll walk
IF YOU have ever yearned to leave behind the career rat race and make a tea-change — now’s your chance.
The newly-formed Australian Tea Growers Co-operative has begun recruiting for growers to join a venture which could put the Central Coast on the global green tea map.
The co-op was set up with help from a $100,000 federal government grant last year and among its long term plan is to build a major tea processing and packing facility on the Central Coast which could create jobs.
It already has five members — Australian Green Tea, Kunitaro Green Tea, Paradise Plants, and two individual members — and aims for about 10 in total.
The first of a number of information sessions were held last week with about half a dozen interested people from the Central Coast and Hunter Valley in attendance. Another two sessions will be held on Tuesday, March 13, and Wednesday, April 11.
Co-operative chairman, John Robb, said green tea growing was an exciting new industry that “ticked all the boxes in terms of environment, health and medical benefits, employment, tourism, next generation farming assurance and export sales”.
Co-op secretary Jeff Thompson said the benefit of a co-operative structure was that farmers stood to benefit not only from their own farm gate sales, but also potentially from earnings out of sales of finished goods both in the domestic and international markets.
Mr Thomson said start-up costs would vary depending on specific conditions, but once established, tea plantations were long-lived, producing revenues for more than 50 years.
He said farmers who signed up would get ongoing help from Australian Green Tea and both the State and Federal Governments.
Mangrove Mountain is the centre of the Central Coast’s fledgling tea growing industry — led by Kunitaro Green Tea.
The six-hectare organic plantation produces around 30 tonnes of high quality Aracha crude green tea annually, which is exported to Japan for further processing and packaging.
It was the first commercial-sized Japanese-style green tea processing facility established in NSW.
Mr Robb said Mangrove Mountain was well suited to tea growing, with sandy well-drained soils and infrequent frosts.
■ Details: Visit the Australian Tea Growers Co-operative website. Alternatively, phone John Robb on 0419 467 567 or Jeff Thomson on 0425 311 116.
Tea and science with Professor Brian Cox
