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Concentrated in Misiones, tea production generates US$81 million in exports per year

Concentrated in Misiones, tea production generates US$81 million in exports per year

Consulted by Télam, businessman Renzo Klimiuk, manager of Klimiuk Infusiones, pointed out that tea is one of the “most exported” productions today within the regional economies of the Argentine Norte Grande (10% of the remaining production is located in Corrientes).

Klimiuk, who is the manager of a family business that has been in the tea business for many years in the city of Campo Viera, referred to the economic potential of the productive sector, which is soon to celebrate its 100th anniversary and will be celebrated between May 25 and 27 at the Knowledge Center of the city of Posadas, where the Expo Té Argentina will take place.

The businessman pointed out that Klimiuk Infusiones is a company that “works hard” to develop the tea sector, and although he remarked that the company’s potential is based on “exports”, he also assured that, within the domestic market, the bet is that it develops more through the consumption of its gourmet derivatives.

“Since 2018 we have been working hard to further develop domestic consumption, more in gourmet tea,” he said, while detailing that “today 95% (of tea in Argentina) goes to export and 5% to the internal market”.

As for the volume, the businessman told this agency that “approximately 80 million kilos of tea are produced annually in the harvest between Misiones and a small part of Corrientes. 90% of the tea production is in the province and 10 % in the province of Corrientes”.

On the other hand, he pointed out that “of the 80 million kilos, 5% goes to the domestic market and 95% to export”, while he assured that in the “last year it is between 73% and 77% in annual exports in volume of kilos of dry tea”.

“By concentrating 70% of shipments, our main market is the United States for the infusion of cold tea,” said the businessman, who indicated that the other most demanding market is Russia. In this sense, he specified that “the general volumes of Argentine exports to the country (Russia) are around 3 and a half million kilos in general of everything they export to that destination.”

Regarding earnings from foreign exchange, the businessman assured that “at the country level we are currently talking about US$ 90 million per year.”

Only the Klimiuk company will end up exporting this year, according to its own projections, some 4 million kilos, which will imply a jump of 11% compared to its usual volume of sales abroad.

Regarding labor, Klimiuk explained that the company has “more than 1,500 hectares of owned and leased tea trees, and we have 150 people working directly and another 100 indirectly.”

Regarding the selected products, the industrialist commented that apart from working with the United States, they took on a “challenge since 2008 to settle in various countries so that missionary tea reaches further and further.”

“In that we had commercial trips, we work with Pakistan, Malaysia, Russia, Poland; we are currently exporting in 12 countries. So, that makes each destination have its ideal mix, its special blends. What we do here is make the blend for each destination”, he remarked.

Klimiuk explained that “in the world tea industry, Argentina in these volumes of 80 million kilos that we said we produce represents only 4% of world tea production. Being that 4% worldwide, it is one of the exporters of technology for production both for the harvest and for the elaboration of the tea”.

“We are the most advanced in the world in terms of tea production and harvesting technology, that is very good and we have that technology,” he finally appreciated.

On the other hand, Télam spoke with an artisan tea entrepreneur and for this he went to another place in Campo Viera and interviewed Irma Fraga, owner of Té Artesanal Doña Irma, located on national route 14 of this town, which since 2014 has been oriented to the production of gourmet black tea.

“Together with my husband, later we got to know the varieties of tea and we had the opportunity to meet a Taiwanese teacher who taught me a lot to make all the other types of tea such as green, white, black, etc. We have many varieties and everything it is a missionary product free of agrochemicals,” said Fraga.

Asked about the location of the market he is targeting, Fraga commented that his “sale is at the country level; we do not export. We are focused on (the cities of) Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Chaco. Tea travels from end to end, so to country level we are in a good part”.

Three of its 27 hectares are oriented to the production of gourmet tea, which, Fraga pointed out, “is the most profitable and requested, (to the point that) there are many producers who are getting hooked because there is a difference with the tea placed in the industry”.

Technology and innovation are also part of this mother product of the red land. One of the voices of this activity of the tea chain is lory maquinarias.

Jorge Lory, owner of the homonymous factory, commented to Télam that “Argentina has exportable machinery for the tea harvest”, and after taking a historical tour of how the machinery for the sector evolved, he pointed out that what is sold the most in the market they are “tractors adapted for harvesting”.

“What we are selling the most now are tractors, of course improved, more versatile, lighter, because the lands were being accommodated, which have a lot to do with it, the new plantations were being accommodated to the machinery and that’s how we got to make machinery already with 4×4 hydraulic transmission, with cabins, with air conditioning equipment, everything for comfort”, he described.

He also remarked that “the machines are made here in the city of Oberá. Tractors are bought, the client buys the tractor that does not exceed 40 HP and we assemble our machines on that, and those that are hydraulic transmission with cab are assembled by 100% here completed”, he commented.

Regarding sales, Lory indicated that “the (tea) companies were growing and that there are more tea plantations, especially for exports,” while remarking that this led to the need to “mechanize.”

“Today there are more or less 35,000 hectares of fully mechanized production,” appreciated the businessman, who also indicated that his sales line is sustained by the productive activity of Misiones and Corrientes, but remarked that the technology and innovation of what they produce “is exportable” because they already did it to two countries.

In terms of innovation, state-of-the-art engineering is applied thanks to 3D models, material tests, field tests and proven technology, they finally explained.

Source: Ambito

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