"Our concept has proven to work well as more and more people around the world pre-order their yearly teas from us," said Renegade Tea Estate co-founder, Kristiina Mehik in an interview with BMG. She emphasized that they don’t simply aim to sell one package of tea after another, but rather they invite people to become part of the Renegade community.
“When we started in the tea industry, we were a bit shocked when we understood how untransparent the industry is – it is very hard to know as a consumer where your tea is coming from and who has actually produced it. You can easily find a box of tea at the supermarket saying that it has been produced in Germany, although tea is not grown commercially in Germany. So, we decided that we want to bring change into this matter and be as open and transparent as possible as a tea farm. We want people to know us and see the pain and glory of tea growing. We don’t want to just sell one package of tea after another, but rather we invite people to be a part of the Renegade community. These people pre-order their tea before the harvesting season begins and we deliver their teas in autumn, after the season. As they wait for their tea, they hope for a good weather and harvest for the season and cheer for our successes and failures on the sidelines.
We see this system as a benefit to both our customers and the company as well since we know how much and which teas we need to produce and therefore we don’t create any additional waste. We can package in bigger packages and ship to the customer just once, which again means less burden to the environment and saves money and time for the customer as well”, - said Kristiina.
Renegade Tea Estate is a tea plant operating Georgian municipality of Tskaltubo from 2017 and produces and sells the tea in 40 countries.
“We export almost all of our production, 98%. It will be more or less the same this year, but hopefully, we’ll also be able to offer our products a bit more on the local market as well. Our main market is Germany, followed by Estonia and the United States. In total, we export to over 40 different countries around the world, from New Zealand to Norway”, - said Kristiina.
As Renegade Tea plantations continue to mature, the company plans to increase capacity each year, although the extent of expansion depends on weather conditions and the growth of the tea plants. Last year, their production amounted to 3000 kg of high-quality tea. During the harvesting season, the company employs around 35-40 people in the fields, all of whom come from nearby villages. Including factory workers and office staff, Renegade Tea employs approximately 50 individuals in total.
Estonian partners began tea production in Georgia seven years ago, investing approximately 1 million EUR into the project.
