Ernst went to the Kedunda Mountain weapons and equipment test site, and in general it was mainly to visit various weapons and equipment tests, as for the "Military Vehicle Research Institute", it is basically an empty shelf, but it is also very easy to understand the initial stage of the entire automobile industry, so in less than a day, Ernst returned to the first town.

Chancellor of the Exchequer von der Leyen provided Ernst with a list of the tea industry, which has grown to become one of the most important industries in East Africa in recent years.

"In 1879, East Africa was second only to the Far Eastern Empire and India in tea production, but by 1882 our tea exports climbed to the third place in the world for the first time, and last year our industrial exports were second only to the Indian tea region and the Far Eastern tea region, with an output of more than 22,000 tons, of which about 11,000 tons were exported, while the output of the Far Eastern Empire should be around 100,000 tons, and India was about 20,000 tons, and our tea was mainly sold to Germany, Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean coast (including North Africa), as well as the Middle East."

Most of the increased tea exports in East Africa come from the help of the Hexingen consortium, because Central and Eastern Europe does not have the habit of tea like the British, and there is no high-quality production area like India, so if you want to expand the market, you must invest in advertising and cooperate with distributors in Germany, and most of the export tea trade in the Far Eastern Empire is also monopolized by the British, of course, the British mainland is also the largest consumer of exported tea.

On the whole, the quality of tea in East Africa cannot compete with the tea producing areas of the previous two countries, but it also has advantages and disadvantages to each other, and it is not completely uncompetitive.

The first is the tea market in Germany and other places in East Africa, the current tea production in the world is far less than that of later generations, and the tea production in Kenya alone in the previous life was higher than that of the Far Eastern Empire, India and East Africa, so the market volume is still very large, especially in Europe and the Arab region (Middle East and North Africa), which do not produce tea.

In the United Kingdom and Western Europe, the tea trade is mainly controlled by the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, which has a greater impact on the Central and Eastern European regions, but the cheaper East African tea, after the output comes up, has a great impact on the original tea market in Central and Eastern Europe, and has now become the most important tea market in East Africa.

The Arab region, mainly North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula region, has a certain advantage in the tea market, and East Africa also has certain advantages, and in addition to the sea passage in North Africa, the land tea trade route is also very prosperous, especially the Arab caravans in the heart of the Sahara Desert.

East African tea can be squeezed into the Arabian Peninsula, thanks to the Omanis, can also be called Zanzibar merchants, Oman is the most prosperous country in the Indian Ocean trade in the Arab region, so relying on Zanzibar merchants, East African tea has entered the Arabian Peninsula and radiated to other regions.

Except for Central and Eastern Europe and the Arab region, East Africa could not compete with the Far Eastern Empire and India in other regions, and the Far Eastern Empire was able to independently cover the whole of East Asia and part of Southeast Asia, Central Asia, North Asia (Tsarist Russia, almost negligible), in addition, because of taste and production, the Indian tea region could not compete with the Far Eastern Empire.

"Green tea does not need to be fermented, but it has to be "finished". Finishing, that is, fresh tea leaves are picked, or fried, or baked, or sun, or steamed, as much as possible to maintain its original color and original taste, but this kind of tea sales in Europe is still not as popular as black tea, but it is more popular in the Mediterranean, of which Austria and Italy are the main markets. ”

"On the contrary, black tea and dark tea products can generally be stored for a long time, and the quality of aging and fragrant makes them very popular in overseas markets."

"However, the consumption of green tea in China is higher than that of black tea, mainly by immigrants from the Far East, and by the way, green tea culture is introduced to East Africa."

Of course, the green tea culture in East Africa is a very ordinary low-level folk tea culture, which is not as particular as the large families of the Far Eastern Empire, but it has also made a great contribution to the popularization of tea in East Africa.

This tea-drinking culture also fooled immigrants from Germany, and the corresponding immigrants from Germany were able to introduce their research on coffee to immigrants from the Far East.

In fact, tea or coffee, for the two major immigrant groups, do not have a deep understanding, but more are exposed to the cultural environment of their own country.

"Tea plants can basically be planted in the whole of East Africa, especially in the vast plateau areas in the east (Kenya, Malawi, Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique, etc.), which are excellent tea producing areas, which are mainly divided into two parts, one is the northern tea region (Kenya), and the other is the southern tea region (along the shores of Lake Malawi)."

"The Northern Tea Region is our high-quality tea region in East Africa, and the earliest batch of tea introduced has three tea varieties that have been relatively mature after years of deep cultivation.

In addition, the northern tea area because of its tea leaf integrity is high, bright color, flower-like East African aroma, slightly bitter taste, the smell is very strong and fresh, the soup color is red and translucent, the taste is mellow, the quality is high, there is a different flavor, so it is more popular in Germany, two of which are black tea, one is black tea, the process mainly reproduces the technology of the Far Eastern Empire, but we are also studying related machinery and equipment to increase production without affecting the taste. ”

Thanks to the superior geographical conditions of the northern tea area, the average annual temperature is around 20 degrees, sufficient sunshine, abundant precipitation, relatively few pests, and an altitude of 1,500 meters, as well as a slightly acidic volcanic ash soil, making the northern tea area an ideal production area for high-quality highland tea.

Moreover, the tea trees in East Africa are evergreen all year round, taking the northern tea regions as an example, tea farmers pick an average of one round of tea every two or three weeks in June and July every year; In the golden season of tea picking in October every year, it can be picked once every five or six days, so East African tea can grow all year round without a dormant period, which makes East African tea yield higher in the same area.

"This year, we set up a Mombasa tea auction house in Mombasa, which is used to provide bidding to businessmen from Austria, Germany, Oman and other countries."

The tea area in the north of East Africa, has formed a preliminary reputation, which belongs to God's appreciation of food, the same variety, planted in the Far East may be unknown, but in East Africa the taste has been greatly improved, quite a kind of orange Huainan charm.

"The annual output of the southern tea area is about 4,000 tons, mainly black tea. The tea soup is clear, the quality is medium and high, and the tea belongs to the Indian species, so the grading method is the same as that of Indian tea, and the production method of tea blending is also used. ”

"In the southern tea producing areas, the products are mainly sold to Western Europe with the sign of "Indian tea", and we sell them at a price lower than three percent of the genuine Indian tea through the cooperation of Dutch tea merchants, but counting the freight, because the Indian tea region is mainly located in the northeast, it is about a thousand kilometers more than the East African route, which makes the cost of the Malawi tea producing area lower. ”

This is also a strategy for East African tea exports, after all, East Africa is a new tea producing area, so it is inevitable to use the Far Eastern Empire or India, two relatively mature tea industry reputations, to open up the market in the core business area of the non-Heixingen consortium.

Of course, copycats are not a long-term solution, East Africa is also focusing on the development of its own tea brand, which is also the main task of the northern tea region, the northern tea area is the best quality tea tea area in East Africa, especially the three tea qualities that have been relatively mature, which can be comparable to many teas in the Far Eastern Empire.

Therefore, the tea in the northern tea region has good sales in Germany by virtue of its price and quality advantages, and the price route is a key point of development of tea in East Africa.

After all, judging from the development path of tea in the previous life, European and American countries are not very optimistic about the grade of tea, or they do not have the rich tea culture and atmosphere in East Asia, but the tea brand under the production and processing of large industries is more acceptable.

(End of chapter)