1、GLOBAL MARKET REPORTTea prices and sustainability SUSTAINABLE COMMODITIES MARKETPLACE SERIESSteffany Bermdez,Vivek Voora,Cristina Larrea,and Erika LunaJanuary 2024Market OverviewGlobal tea production continues to grow,though the gap in demand narrowed as the COVID-19 pandemic fuelled consumption.Aft

2、er water,tea is the most consumed beverage in the world(Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations FAO,2022b).Drinking tea is a daily ritual for half of the worlds population.From its origins in China,tea has spread across trade routes over centuries,becoming a key global cash crop and

3、providing livelihoods for millions of smallholder farmers(FAO,2022a).Tea is a stimulant that also provides many health benefits(Storozhuk,2022)and is cultivated in more than 60 countries,primarily in Asia,Africa,South America,and parts of Eastern Europe.China produces 47%of the worlds tea,followed b

4、y India,Kenya,and Sri Lanka(FAO,2022a).All tea varieties come from the Camelia sinensis plant,which produces five different types of teablack,green,white,oolong,and dark teasdepending on the degree of oxidation.Traditional cultivation and harvesting are labour intensive,and if tea shoots are not plu

5、cked at the right moment,they lose quality and value(FAO,2021a).Harvested green tea shoots are processed by withering,rolling,or cutting-tearing-curling(CTC),oxidizing,and drying before being sorted into different grades.The tea is then packed and sent to auction houses for sale or sold directly to

6、buyers on private contracts.Tea is classified by type and by process(orthodox/rolled tea and CTC tea).Origin and terroir play a key part in identity and quality,and teas are also named by provenance(e.g.,Assam,Ceylon,Darjeeling,East of Rift Kenya,Java,etc.)(Dufrne,2020).A number of tea cultivation a