AUSTRALIA
The Williames Selective Tea Harvester arrived at the Tea Research Foundation in Africa in 2014 and is being tested on a plot of two different tea cultivars (PC168 and PC198). The mechanical harvester was developed by Geoff Williames in Australia and comprises rubber rotors, a 1-millimeter cutting edge, a petrol engine, a conveyor belt and a leaf collection chamber.
During harvesting, it does not cut the leaf in the way that other cutting harvesters do (as with the Jachacha machine) but breaks off shoots of the right size, imitating hand plucking.
During tests at the Mimosa Research Station in Malawi, different plots are being harvested by the Williames Selective Harvester and by the Jachacha machine on 7-day, 11-day and 14-day plucking rounds. Preliminary observations show that the Williames machine has the potential to pluck the best quality leaf. Parameters being observed include yield, leaf quality, and percentage of the two different cultivar shoots that the machines are able to harvest from the plucking table. The Williames is achieving better results all round.
Learn more: www.williamestea.com