Jakarta – The Indonesian Tea Association asked the government to intensify the promotion of tea in the country to boost the level of public consumption. Secretary of the Indonesian Tea Association, Atik Darmadi, said the level of tea consumption in the country continued to decline on the grounds of poor quality. “Indonesia’s population is more than 230 million and not all of them drink tea every day. Even though the domestic potential is huge,” said Atik Darmadi, Friday, January 25, 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to him, the World Food and Agriculture Agency (FAO) has recommended tea-producing countries to continue to increase domestic consumption. Meanwhile, Indonesia’s consumption rate has continued to fall from 330 grams per capita per year, in a few years, now it is only 180 grams per capita per year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Atik refers to the world’s largest tea producer, China, which continues to boost production and consumption levels in the country. China was able to boost production to 1.6 million tons with a tea plantation area of \u200b\u200b2.2 million hectares. Of this total production, only 330 thousand tons of tea were exported, while the rest was for domestic consumption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This condition is in contrast to the situation in Indonesia. The amount of Indonesian tea production continues to fall due to the shrinking area planted. The association’s data shows that in 2010 production decreased from 129,200 tons to 119,651 tons in 2011. This was due to the decreasing area planted, from 124,400 hectares in 2010 to 123,500 hectares in 2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This decline in production actually increased the volume of imports. Atik revealed, currently teabag brands from abroad are mostly found in hotels and restaurants that are not high-class. “It is increasingly clear that the conditions in the market are dominated by brands that do not originate from Indonesia,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because of that, he added, the Association asked the government to carry out promotional activities to increase domestic consumption in addition to boosting production. For example, he said, through organizing festivals or creating cafes and tea outlets throughout Indonesia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“In the future, tea will not only be a plantation commodity for export and domestic consumption, but its role needs to be further enhanced as a means of tourism and cultural introduction,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n