{"id":53,"date":"2019-08-02T04:23:26","date_gmt":"2019-08-02T04:23:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/en.ctma.com.cn\/?p=53"},"modified":"2019-08-02T04:23:26","modified_gmt":"2019-08-02T04:23:26","slug":"extreme-weather-threatens-australias-coast-hugging-tea-farms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.ctma.com.cn\/index.php\/2019\/08\/02\/extreme-weather-threatens-australias-coast-hugging-tea-farms\/","title":{"rendered":"Extreme Weather Threatens Australia\u2019s Coast Hugging Tea Farms"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Australia Weather Extremes \u2013 Nerada frost (Photo courtesy of Nerada Tea)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nerada Tea<\/a>, the largest producer of Australian-grown tea, is just one of several farms experiencing weather extremes as preparations for Australia\u2019s tea harvest begin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is winter in the Southern Hemisphere and the Bureau of Meteorology reports an unusually fierce and damaging frost. A July storm brought winds of 125 kilometers per hour, the result of Antarctic air blasting north from the South Ocean. The spring harvest runs Sept. 1 through November with a first flush prized as much as the March harvest in northern tea lands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nerada plantation director Tony Poyner, told The New Daily<\/a><\/em> severe frosts, followed by a prolonged dry period over the past 12 months, have decimated the tea plantation located in Far North Queensland, wiping out nearly 50% of the black tea yield.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The harsh weather conditions and resulting crop devastation has cost the 360-hectare farm \u2013 located on the Atherton Tablelands near Cairns \u2013 close to AUD$1 million in production losses, according to Poyner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Australian Coastal Habitat (Image credit: The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Guardian<\/a><\/em> reports that across much of Australia \u201cdramatic climate events are compounding the effects of underlying global heating.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In July a Rabobank reported global weather continues to be \u201chighly unusual\u201d, with drought<\/a> forcing Australia to import wheat for the first time in more than a decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cExtreme climate events such a heatwaves, floods and drought damaged 45% of the marine ecosystems along Australia\u2019s coast in a seven-year period,\u201d according to researchers at CSIRO<\/a>, Australia\u2019s national science agency. A study<\/a>of the nation\u2019s 8,000 kilometer coast by CSIRO found climate events were exacerbating the effects of human-induced climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll of the people around the country working on these systems for years have done a great job of documenting the impacts and repercussions,\u201d Russ Babcock, the study\u2019s lead author, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you stand back and have a look at how many [climate events] have happened between that period of 2011 to 2017, it really backs up that it\u2019s not just the Great Barrier Reef<\/a> that we have to think about. It\u2019s all around the country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coastal tea farms<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Nerada Tea Factory (Image: Google Maps)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Australia\u2019s tea producing areas are in South West Victoria, Northern New South Wales, Tasmania, and Western Australia. Nerada faces the Great Barrier Reef along a picturesque coastal strip. Several of Australia\u2019s tea farms are in Queensland. These include Nucifora which borders Nerada and Arakai Estate in Bellthorpe, Queensland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Almost all the tea consumed in Australia is imported. India is the largest supplier (230 metric tons), followed by Sri Lanka (171 metric tons) and Indonesia (137 metric tons). By comparison only a few minor specialty teas were imported from Japan. The sources of imports reflect the established historical preference of Australians for breakfast teas in the English style, writes Sharyn Johnston, founder of Australian Tea Masters<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Australia ranks 55 globally for per capita consumption. Imports amount to 97% of consumption, according to Tea Journey\u2019s<\/a><\/em> Australia Harvest Review<\/em>. The total consumer market for 2018 was almost exactly $500 million. Growth is estimated to be just under 2% per annum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a tough year in Australian agriculture \u2013 a sunburnt country of flooding rains that suddenly halted an extended drought in Queensland and created a new set of disasters in the process as the barren earth disappeared under an inland sea,\u201d wrote Nerada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tony Poyner (Photo courtesy of Nerada Tea)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe cyclone season is an additional challenge for farmers in our home state. Ex-Tropical Cyclone Owen broke records when it dumped more than 700 millimeters of rain in 24 hours in some parts of Far North Queensland just a week before Christmas last year,\u201d according to the Nerada blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMost businesses would look to cut costs as a result. But we continue to stand by our employees, many who have been with us for decades, so that we remain a viable part of the local economy,\u201d said Tony Poyner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile production has been significantly reduced, we\u2019ve kept everyone on the payroll. The team is still here, and the machinery has never looked so sharp,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nerada Tea, the largest producer of Australian-grown tea, is just one of several farms experiencing weather extremes as preparations for Australia\u2019s tea harvest begin. It is winter in the Southern Hemisphere and the Bureau of Meteorology reports an unusually fierce and damaging frost. A July storm brought winds of 125 kilometers per hour, the result<\/p>\n

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