Nerada Tea

Nerada Tea is the largest grower and manufacturer of tea in Australia.

Nerada Tea has over 1,000 acres of planted tea on the Atherton Tablelands in Far North Queensland and produces approximately 1.5 million kilos of black tea a year – that’s about 750 million cups of tea.

Nerada Tea’s visitors’ centre (located on the plantation) is open to the public seven days a week. Visitors can discover how tea is grown and processed, take a tour of the factory, buy fresh tea or a special gift or simply relax and enjoy a Devonshire tea.

Nerada Tea is the largest supplier of Fairtrade and organic certified herbal infusions and teas in the Australian market. The raw ingredients are imported and sourced directly from the grower which ensures quality and freshness.

Fairtrade and the environment are at the heart of the company. Nerada Tea supports the Fairtrade concept which ensures growers in developing countries get a fair price for what they grow and the company does not use pesticides on its Australian grown tea.

Since its inception in 1959 Nerada Tea has pioneered the mechanisation of this traditionally labour intensive industry, making it one of the most mechanised vertically integrated tea companies in the world.

Unlike traditional tea growing countries such as Asia and Africa where the leaves are harvested by hand, Nerada Tea has sophisticated mechanised harvesting machinery that can harvest up to 4,000 kg an hour, enough to make 1,000 kg of black tea.

Nerada Tea ships the tea to its packing factory in Brisbane where it is packed into various types of Nerada products using high speed packing machinery that packs 450 teabags with string and tags every minute.