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Tea garden in Turkey’s Rize Province along the Black Sea.
TURKEY
Climate dictates that Turkish tea be harvested in three flushes, unlike Africa, Sri Lanka, and Southern India, where plucking continues year-round. Tea is grown there on sparsely populate hills facing the Black Sea where growers depend on seasonal labor.
This year's spring flush was interrupted by a March 28 lockdown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Fatma Genc, a researcher at Istanbul's Marmara University, told The National that 50,000 tea farmers were unable to prepare their fields for the harvest. Ramadan, which began April 23, complicated timing for Muslims.
“The failure to harvest this year will make it difficult to meet even domestic demand,” said Genc told the newspaper. “Tea prices, which have been hiked twice in a row this year, will increase even more if the producers cannot go to the field.”
This week farm owners and laborers from across the country were finally able to travel to northern Turkey on trips extending through the three-day Eid al-Fitr festival that follows the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Seasonal labor from neighboring Georgia and Azerbaijan continue to face border restrictions leading to some creative solutions. The city of Findikli in Rize hired locals to harvest around half of the 30,000 metric tons produced nearby in an agreement that spans six months. Workers harvest for ten days, and while the leaves for the next flush are growing, they complete municipal projects.
In Rize Province, the heart of the growing region, 16,000 laborers were given permission to travel between fields and homes. The Provincial General Hygiene Council required testing at least one member of each family, about 6,000 in all. Screenings continue.
The provinces of Rize, Trabzon, Artvin, and Giresun produce around 260,000 metric tons of tea annually; most of it sold domestically. Turks consume an average of 3.5 kilos of tea a year, more than any other country. While much of the tea is imported, a significant shortfall is expected due to rising costs and the fact that much of the domestic tea went unpicked. Caykur, the state-owned producer that supplies 60% of the country's tea, is running a deficit and facing additional costs due to the pandemic. Caykur purchases tea from 200,000 independent farmers.
As of June 1, Turkey reported 163,942 confirmed COVID-19 cases with 4,540 deaths, making it 11th on the list of countries most impacted by the pandemic, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.