"The event is an initial move to step up Indonesian tea production and enhance its quality as well as raise awareness of tea as a popular beverage in Indonesia," ATI's advisory board chairman Wahyu remarked here on Friday.
Wahyu pointed to the National Tea Competition 2019 being the first to be held in Indonesia.
The competition was held to select the best quality tea among black orthodox tea, CTC black tea, green tea, white tea, and fragrant tea.
Winners of the competition will partake in the world tea competition scheduled in South Korea at the end of 2019.
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West Java, Sumatra, and Central Java are among the tea production centers in Indonesia.
West Java's tea plantation covers an area of 92,816 hectares, or 77.64 percent of the national tea plantation area.
Chairman of the competition's organizing committee, Dede Kusdiman, remarked that 16 companies and 54 tea factories had sent their samples for the competition.
During the event, ATI had appointed West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil and wife as well as Deputy Head of West Bandung District Hengky Kurniawan and wife as Ambassador of Indonesian Tea for the 2019-2020 period.
Kusdiman noted that Indonesia's tea plantation area in the past decade had dwindled, from 140 thousand hectares to 119 thousand hectares in 2019.
"During that time, Indonesia is the world’s third-largest tea producer, but now, we are ranked the seventh-largest. During the past five years, we exported 50 thousand tons, but now, we only exported 40 thousand tons per year," he stated. Related news: IMF-WB - Indonesian Pavilion features freshness of artisan tea
Translator: Ajat Sudrajat, Sri Haryati
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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