Tea was first introduced to Hawaii in the late 19th century, but it wasn’t until almost a century later that researchers began to fully explore the crop’s potential.
The early efforts to develop a market focused on tea as a commodity crop, such as sugar cane and pineapple before it. Hawaii couldn’t compete against the tea powerhouses of the world — China and India — which had thousands of years of experience growing Camellia sinensis, more land to grow on, and more workers to harvest and process leaves.
“You have to be high-end to make it in Hawaii,” said Randy Hamasaki, University of Hawaii at Manoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources county extension agent.
People buy Hawaii-grown tea because it’s “something different,” CTAHR faculty member Stuart Nakamoto said during a recent tea workshop. “We’ve definitely got to get good-quality (here) because people won’t pay for low-quality tea.”
The average price of Hawaiian-grown tea is about $400 per pound. The average price for commodity tea, such as that grown in mass quantities in China, was $1.12 per pound as of May.
Hawaiian tea as a specialty crop is still relatively new compared to local staples.
“It’s easier to get into coffee because it’s more established,” said CTAHR extension agent Andrea Kawabata, who works in Kealakehe.
A June 2014 CTAHR survey of existing tea growers found 39 farms statewide. None had been in operation more than 15 years, and half had been growing tea for three years or fewer.
Tea takes about five years to reach full maturity and allow for maximized harvests.
Nearly three-quarters of the growers (28 farms) are based on the Big Island, and distributed “relatively evenly” around the island.
The largest tea plantings were between 5 and 10 acres, but most covered less than an acre.
Using proper soil science appears to be a barrier to thriving in the tea market. Just three of the growers surveyed were in the optimal range for tea growing. Camellia sinensis does best in acidic soil with a pH between 4.5 and 5.
One-fourth of survey respondents did not know their soil pH.
More than half were unfamiliar with the term “banji,” which describes two tea leaves with no bud or a dormand bud growing between them. Too much banji reduces overall yield of a tea crop.
Many respondents listed the labor-intensive nature of tea cultivation, from planting to harvesting, as another barrier to production.
“Need labor but can’t afford labor until producing more but can’t produce more without labor …” one person wrote.
According to a 2011 market feasibility study, specialty tea is “well positioned for financial growth” in the United States, with tea consumption increasing annually.
It’s a trend that mainland farms also have taken into account.
In 1999, when CTAHR planted its first tea plants at the Mealani Research Station in Waimea, there was only one mainland farm, located in Charleston, S.C.
“Now they’re sprouting up,” Hamasaki said. But, he added, “They’re behind us.”
Email Ivy Ashe at iashe@hawaiitribune-herald.com.