Tea goes north

The northernmost tea in the world grows in Russia, or rather, in the Russian subtropics in Sochi. The first attempts to grow this warm-weather crop on the Russia’s Black Sea coast date back to the early last century. The farmer Judas Koshman managed to do this. In the Soviet times, great attention was paid to the development of domestic tea growing. The world’s northernmost ‘Krasnodar tea’ bushes were planted on 1,600 hectares of plantations in the city, which allowed to collect more than 7 tonnes of green tea leaves and about 2 tonnes of ready-made tea were produced annually. Problems in the industry began after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Most of the land suitable for tea growing turned out to be either abandoned or houses and hotels were built on the land, and foreign tea boxes were on the stores’ shelves instead of the Russian tea. Nevertheless, there are attempts to revive the Krasnodar Tea.

Currently, there are 1,200 hectares of land suitable for growing tea in the Sochi area where tea plantations are located, of which 415 hectares are used.

The Subtropical Scientific Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SSC, RAS) continues the work to improve the quality of the Krasnodar tea. We talked to the specialists of the SSC and found out why the scientists are looking for ‘genes of cold’ and when, after all, the Russians will be able to enjoy the northernmost tea in the world.

Tsiala Tutberidze, Associate Professor, Candidate of Agricultural Sciences, Head of the laboratory for the introduction and the variety study of subtropical and southern fruit crops, speaks about breeding new varieties of tea and whether tea bushes can grow in Siberia.

- First of all, how useful is tea? Recently, opinions have been expressed that tea and coffee are not healthy drinks at all.

- Tea is a healthy drink. For example, green tea removes free radicals from the human body. Therefore, after the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese increased tea consumption, it must be in the diet of a person suffering from radiation sickness or cancer. Thanks to the extractive substances, black tea stimulates and raises blood pressure. Of course, tea without additives, which can be of ‘chemical’ origin, is more useful, and there are many fake tea products on the shelves, but a cup of good strong tea is always the right choice.

- What is unique about the tea grown in Sochi?  

- It is believed that this is the northernmost tea in the world. But that’s not the main point. Our tea is organic. Chinese varieties of tea grow in the Russian subtropics. But if tea plantations in China have to be treated with pesticides and replanted every 25 years because they are affected by such pests as aphids, sawflies, and so on, the Sochi climate allows to avoid this. Our rainfall regime differs from that in China therefore, tea pests are minimal in such weather conditions. Even our commercial tea plantations are not treated with any chemicals and pesticides, there are the tea plantations that have already existed for more than half a century and still yield an excellent harvest.

- Tea growing in Sochi is considered to be the northernmost in the world. Why do you breed frost-resistant tea varieties?

- First of all, to expand the distribution area of ​​tea varieties. In fact, it is not entirely right to say now that the Sochi tea plantations are the northernmost in the world. The Subtropical Scientific Centre, RAS, has experimental plantations in Adygea, in Tuapse, where tea bushes also grow. It turns out that these tea plantations are north of Sochi. But our task is to make such tea varieties not only frost-resistant but also more productive. Many tea plantations were set up in the middle of the last century, and tea bushes, like other plants, become old, their productivity declines. As for commercial tea production, there is a need to replant the areas with new generation tea bushes. They tolerate cold weather and drought better, and yield a good harvest.

- What temperatures can tea withstand?

- Tea bushes without snow cover can withstand temperatures down to minus 10 degrees Celsius. Under snow cover, down to minus 20 degrees Celsius.

- It turns out that tea can grow even in Siberia?

- Not really. The fact is that tea bushes cannot withstand low temperatures for a long time, we are lucky to have such cold weather on the Black Sea coast for two or three days a year. In addition, the tea bushes prefer certain acidic soils. Therefore, speaking about the development of cold-resistant varieties of tea, we do not assume that tea bushes can grow, for example, in Taimyr. But this is quite possible higher in the mountains of the Sochi area, for example, in the Adygea and Tuapse areas. I want to say that in the Soviet times, attempts were made to grow tea bushes in other parts of the country, there were plantations in the Transcarpathia region.

- How do you create new tea varieties, how long does it take?

- Selection studies are carried out to breed tea varieties that are more resistant to our climate. First of all, those plants are selected that have a well-developed ‘skeleton’ after wintering, have no mechanical damage, mostly well-formed tea bushes showing high productivity. After that, biochemical analyzes are carried out to determine the content of tannins, extractives, vitamin C, and other indicators, because it happens that a variety of tea is good in all respects, but its biochemistry is not good. Such a sample cannot go into production, it can be used for further selection. If the selected clone gives positive results, the vegetative propagation of the sample by cuttings takes place. Two-year-old seedlings are planted on the experimental plantation, and later, they go through the leaf harvest stage, after that it can be understood whether the candidate for a new variety of tea has all the necessary indicators - in terms of yield and its biochemical parameters. The process is not fast, breeding a new variety of tea takes from 10 to 20 years. Today, there are ways to speed up this process which involves the work with tea genes. It is possible to decipher a plant’s DNA structure (as a human’s one) and identify groups of genes that are responsible for frost- and drought-resistance. Thanks to this, the scientists of our Centre are able to say within a year what genes will predominate in a plant and what signs they will have. It is not necessary to wait for several years.

- How many varieties of tea have been already bred by the specialists of your Centre?

- We have created a new generation of tea varieties such as Sochi, Karatum, Yuzhanka, and Vano ones. On the basis of our branch, the Tuapse Scientific Station (a permanent study area), some tea varieties frost-resistant and of high productivity were identified such as Kimyn, Krasnodar 1, Krasnodar 2 and Krasnodar 3 ones. In addition, the Colchis variety of tea is often used for planting in Sochi. This is not our tea variety as it was bred in Georgia but zoned here. This variety shows very good taste, is close to the group of Indian teas, but, unfortunately, it is less resistant to our climate, suffers from cold and drought. Nevertheless, this tea variety is used in breeding, and on its basis, some promising forms have already been obtained, which will be transferred to the State Variety Testing.

- We talked a lot about the productivity of tea bushes, or maybe you, as a scientist, have a dream? What about breeding, for example, a pineapple flavoured tea?

- Quite possible. But today, our main dream is to keep tea plantations in our country and the tea production in general. Therefore, our Centre for Subtropical Cultures is the only one in Russia that is engaged in selection and vegetative propagation of seedlings for re-planting tea plantations.

Despite the fact that the Krasnodar tea fully complies with all international standards, it has one significant drawback - there is a shortage of this tea. Tea leaves that are harvested in Sochi are no more than two percent of the Russian market’s demand. Why? Andrey Platonov, Deputy Director for Strategic Communications of the SSC, RAS, explains.

- Why is there practically no own tea in Russia despite the existing possibilities?

- There are many reasons. But the most important is the actual lack of state support for subtropical crop production. At first, a little bit of history. Back in the middle of the 19th century, when Russia came to the Caucasus, the Russian emperor thought about the land settlement in this region. In particular, two experimental stations for the cultivation of subtropical plants appeared, one station was in Sukhum and the second one in Sochi. Their task was the introduction of subtropical plants and their adaptation to local conditions. Funds were allocated for the work, there was a certain state programme. This work was supported by the Bolsheviks who came to power after the revolution in 1917. In the USSR, a special programme ‘Soviet Subtropics’ was even launched, there was a special department at the Ministry of Agriculture engaged in the subtropical crop production development. This system was destroyed after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Since then, there has been no large-scale programme dealing with subtropical plants in our country. And this applies not only to tea, but also persimmons, pomegranates, feijoa, citrus fruits, and even flowers. Holland has stopped the supply of tulips, what will we give the girls and women on March 8 now? And earlier, tulips, roses, and carnations were grown in Sochi for the whole country.

- To what extent did the large-scale residential development in Sochi affect the development of the tea industry?

- This is one of the consequences of the lack of a clear position of the state to support tea growing. Before the collapse of the USSR, the area of ​​tea plantations in Sochi reached 2,800 hectares. Today, only 360 hectares are used in all farms. Of course, we do not talk about the urgent need to demolish everything and revive the plantations. There are other options. For example, our scientists are breeding frost-resistant varieties of tea, the so-called ‘northernization’ is taking place, tea bushes can grow on a commercial scale not only in Sochi, where there is no place for that. According to experts, about 10,000 hectares are potentially suitable for tea plantations in Adygea, 5,000 hectares in the Tuapse and Apsheron areas of the Krasnodar Territory. And this is an opportunity to implement import substitution programmes - up to 30 percent of the Russian tea market’s requirements - but also to create new production units and jobs. In addition, individual houses and private farms account for about 10,000 hectares of land today. Of course, subtropical plants could be planted on these farms not only for personal needs, but also for cooperation with the state. But who can explain the people how to do this? In the decree of Alexander III on the creation of a subtropical station in Sochi, it was indicated that its purpose was to grow seedlings of subtropical fruit plants, which should be transferred free of charge or at a half price to local communities. It turns out that the tsar thought about such things, the Soviet government also thought about this, but what is the situation now? Now, people move from the Moscow Region, buy a piece of land and plant arborvitae or birches on it, because they don’t understand that they can plant persimmons, feijoas, and lemons. And there is no agronomic support or assistance. And this again indicates that there is no clear state programme for subtropical crop production.

- Nevertheless, the ‘Law on Tea’ has recently come into effect in the Krasnodar Territory, which means that there are some attempts to revive the industry ...

- Really, there are attempts. And the scientific community is making every effort to do so. For example, thanks to our initiative, the word ‘science’ appeared in the concept of the Sochi development, and in the new master plan of the resort city, it was stipulated to allocate 900 hectares of land for tea growing thanks to the assistance of Veniamin Kondratiev, the governor of the Kuban. This land should be allocated by 2044. As for the ‘Law on Tea’, the financing of this industry appeared as a separate line thanks to this law, although, so far, it’s just a ‘line’. It takes about 10 years, and 50-80 mn roubles should be allocated per hectare to establish a new tea plantation and get the first harvest. Last year, 7 mn roubles were allocated under the regional programme to support the tea growers. A little more than 200,000 roubles from this amount are for scientific research. We all understand - if the tea industry is supported at such a scale, it will remain in stagnation.