Economic contribution of tea agriculture: An evaluation on Rize, Trabzon and Artvin provinces

Water has become the most important drink for people to survive. It is possible to say that the most preferred beverage in the country after water is tea. Although the consumption area of tea is wide, the production area is only in the Eastern Black Sea Region in Turkey; It is produced in Rize, Trabzon, Artvin and Giresun-Ordu provinces. This study was carried out to determine the economic contribution of tea agriculture, which is produced in a limited area. For this purpose, a survey was applied to 400 manufacturers in December 2023 and the obtained data were subjected to frequency analysis and Chi-Square test. According to the results of the research, it was seen that the share of the income that producers received from tea production in the annual income of the household was low. It has been determined that the income obtained from tea is an additional source of income for producers and that producers use a large part of this income for their basic needs and debt payments. It has been observed that tea agriculture creates a source of income for those who do not have land, thanks to the sharecropping activity. Employing personnel for activities such as transporting the produced teas to factories and processing the teas arriving at the factory are also contributions to employment.