2. Tea Production in the World  Tea production in the world increased steadily and reached 4.8 million tonnes in recent years.On an average, during the last two decade in the production front, China contributed 35 % of the world tea production closely followed by India(21%), Kenya (8 %) and Sri Lanka (7%). Turkey (5 %)is the fifth biggest tea producer country with its 225,000 tonnes /year black tea production in the world.  At the start of tea cultivation in Turkey, the primary goal was to meet the domestic demand only. Today, Turkey holds a significant place among the world’s largest tea producers. But still great percentage of products are marketed in our domestic market.

3. Production of Top 5 Producers (1992 - 2012) http://faostat3.fao.org/faostat-gateway/go/to/compare/Q/QC/E

4. Black Sea Region of Turkey

5. Background of Turkish Tea Industry After the World War I local people of Eastern Black Sea Region began to immigrate to other big cities with in Turkey for better earning. Foreseeing negative impacts of immigration, government intervened through an act in 1924 to encourage cultivation of hazlenut, orange, lemon and tea in Rize and surroundings.The farmers were motivated for tea cultivation by waiving land tax for 10 years. Moreover, they were provided free seedlings to establish hazlenut, orange, lemon and tea gardens on their lands from newly established (1924)“Orchard Culture Station (Bahçe Kültürü İstasyonu)” besides cultivating traditional crops like corn, collard etc. In the same year for cultivation in Rize government officials were charged with to purchase tea seeds and seedlings from Batum (Georgia-1924). Resultantly, Central Tea Nursery which was later on restructured as Tea Research Institute, was established and began to act.This center distributed about 50,000 tea seedlings among local farmers to raise tea plantations. In the same year 2 hectars of tea garden has been established. Ongoing years the amount of tea plantation areas have rapidly increased. Due to the World War II a sudden fall had happened in tea imports from abroad. Therefore the government concentrated on development of local tea industry and sharp increase in production. For that purpose first tea processing factory, Zihni Derin has been established in Rize province. Until government monopoly on tea production, processing and marketing was withdrawn in 1984, it was the unique tea authority in Turkey. Today this State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) called ÇAYKUR is the biggest and leading establishment of tea industry in Turkey with its 46 black tea processing factories, 1 organic black tea processing factory and 1 small scale green tea factory, 3 packing factories, 7 regional directorate of marketing and a research institute. With its 7700 tonnes/day tea processing capacity and 16500 employees it has approximately 60 % market share in domestic market. Other 40 % of market share belongs to private sector. Now tea industry has a vital importance in socio-economic life of Eastern Black Sea Region.

6. Regional Tea Production in Turkey  All of the tea plantation areas are located in the eastern part of Black Sea Region. 66 % of total tea plantation areas are of Rize whilst the rest of them are of Trabzon, Artvin, Giresun and Ordu respectively. Name of Provice Tea Plantation area (hectares) Rize50,583 Trabzon15,328 Artvin 8,430 Giresun- Ordu 2,299 Total76,640

7. MARKETING In CAYKUR packed teas are marketed via our district offices available in 9 provinces of our country. A territory for each marketing district offices consisting of surrounding cities and specific number of distributorships has been determined. Selection, number of distributors, determination of narrow region and with hot sales application the liabilities of distributors are determined with regulation and standardized accordingly. CAYKUR is the sole role model for private companies which purchase, process and market of other 40 % of tea leaves. Since 1995 private tea companies have been organised under the umbrella of Rize Commodity Exchange (RTB) and have got close relationship with CAYKUR. 95 % of total black tea production of Turkey is marketed in domestic market whilst only 5 % of 220,000 tonnes/year black tea production is marketed in international market due to increasing global competition and production costs. The main destinations of Turkish tea are the European Union countries, the USA and Northern Cyprus Turkish Republic. Among the EU countries, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, France and the United Kingdom are the most important markets.

8. Research and Development Studies In our country research and development studies are carried on by tea research institute managed and financed by CAYKUR. All tea plantations are established by seeds and show huge heterogeneity in Turkey. In order to renovation of tea gardens with selected tea clones, selection studies have been carried out since 1970’s. Some promising clones were created and experimental tea plantations were established by using those fruitful clones. In near future one of the most important project called “Renovation of Tea Gardens with Selected Tea Clones” will be implemented in Eastern Black Sea Region.

9. Ongoing Research and Development Studies Tea industry in Turkey had solely consisted of black tea manufacturing until 2003. “Turkish Green Tea Production Project” was achieved in 2003 and put into practice since that year. “Organic Tea Cultivation and Processing Project " launched in 2009 by CAYKUR and is still continuing. The tea can be marketed as "organic tea" only after the completion of conversion period of three years. As a part of this project 1,000 hectare of tea plantation has organic certificate while 2,877 hectares of it still in the conversion period. In the same year CAYKUR established Hemsin Organic Tea Factory for processing organic tea. For a sustainable tea cultivation, to ensure the continuity of ecological life as well as protection of existing natural resources, Organic Tea Production Project is a very important project. “Development of value-added tea by-products like Caffeine and Catechines by using Supercritical Fluid Extraction Method” is one of the exciting research project of CAYKUR which is still in progress. “ Instant Tea and Functional Instant Tea Production Project ” is another project which is carried on with the collaboration of our institute and TUBITAK (Turkish Scientific and Technical Research Institute).

10. Thank you for your attention !! Şaziye ILGAZ (M.Sci.) Food Engineer/ Researcher 2014- Rize /Turkey