Tea is the trademark of Sri Lanka. About 10% of the world produced tea is made here. More than half a million people work on plantations. Practically all the tea produced here is exported. Plantations of the famous Ceylon tea are also located in Sri Lanka.
Row materials for tea are leaves of tea bushes.Tea growing requires the warm and damp climate. The tea picking in Sri Lanka is made four times in a year, but the most valuable tea is picked during the first time.
Tea from the alpine plantations is considered to be of high-quality, other types of tea are of the average quality.
The work of tea pickers is very hard and monotonous: they pick leaves by hands.
Every worker picks about 30-35 kg of tea a day.
The process of tea picking was tried to be mechanized several times, but this system is still undeveloped.
Women working.
One kg of green leaves costs about 1,5 dollar.
After picking women bring tea to the control post.
Then sacks are weighed and brought to factories.
Every picker earns 150 dollars a day.
There are few men in plantations, they make only the hardest work, for example they split wood or repair machines.
Kilns for the tea drying.
The factory is organized perfectly: there are markings, plates and indications for workers.
The first step of tea making is drying.
The white tea is the most expensive. It is made from unblown tea buds and young leaves.
Then tea leaves are twisted in special rollers.
This process save the best qualities of the tea and increase its storage life.
The third step is fermentation, it means the process of oxidation. Tea leaves are put into dark and damp rooms where they become black and acquire a pleasant smell.
Then the tea is dried again at the 90-95°C temperature.
There the tea is sorted by the size of its leaves.
These machines sift out too big or too small tealeaves.
The marking is a very important moment. All the information about the tea is written on packages.
Women load the sacks that will be brought to the port.
via zyalt
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