Australian green tea commended

Ito En Australia, a company that farms green tea, has received a regional exporter commendation at the 2010 Governor of Victoria Export Awards.

Ito En, who claims to be the first Australian company to grow, harvest and export Australian-grown green tea, is based in the Wangaratta region where conditions are similar to the green tea growing regions of Japan.

The company farms green tea on 70 hectares of farming land and exports 98% of its crop to Japan.

The award recognised Victoria’s growing reputation for supplying clean and natural food and beverage products to the world and Ito En’s success in this area.

Ito En Australia Executive Director Yoshiaki Tanoura said that, over ten years ago, Ito En Japan recognised that the Wangaratta region in Victoria was particularly suited to the farming of fine grades of green tea for the Japanese market.

From the beginning, Ito En aimed to capitalise on a growing global demand for green tea and the need to deliver product to Japan during the northern hemisphere’s dormant season.

“Our strongest attribute is our southern hemisphere location,” Tanoura said.

“Green tea is highly prized for its freshness and commands a premium. With our southern hemisphere location, we are able to provide Japan, and the northern hemisphere, with seasonal fresh tea when Japanese plantations lay dormant.”

After nearly 15 years of persistence, 2010 has been a good year for the company. As well as increasing its export capacity, the business began commercialising a portion of its product and marketing it as ‘Australian Green Tea’ to retail customers in Japan.

“With Japan’s love for all things Australian and Australia’s clean and green reputation, we created the concept for Australian Green Tea using this season’s first harvest of green leaves,” Tanoura said.

“Setting a new benchmark in marketing green tea in Japan, the Australian Green Tea is proving extremely popular with the young Japanese people.”

Australian Green Tea is currently sold throughout Japan in supermarkets and specialty stores as loose tea and bottled drinks.