Myanmar
An origin where a large share of the tea crop is eaten rather than drunk. Shan State, on the same upland system that runs into Yunnan, holds old large-leaf tea stands that supply both conventional green and black tea and laphet — leaf steamed, packed and fermented under weight, then dressed with oil, garlic and fried pulses and served as a dish. Almost nothing leaves the country under its own name, so the tea is far better known inside Myanmar than outside it.
Production, trade and price
| Measure | Year | Value | Basis | Published by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harvested area | 2023 | 93,223 ha imputed | FAOSTAT QCL element 'Area harvested' for item 667 / CPC 01620 'Tea leaves', in hectares. FAO's methodology note warns that for permanent crops such as tea 'data may refer to total planted area' rather than area actually harvested, so this is the area under tea and not necessarily the area picked in the year. The associated crop is measured as green leaf. FAOSTAT flags this cell I, a value imputed by a receiving agency; the country did not report it. | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Statistics Division |
| Production | 2023 | 118,523 t imputed | FAOSTAT QCL element 'Production' for item 667 / CPC 01620 'Tea leaves', in tonnes. FAO's QCL methodology note states the domain 'contains production data for primary products', so this counts GREEN LEAF as plucked, not made tea. It is roughly four to five times the made-tea figure the same country's tea board publishes. FAOSTAT flags this cell I, a value imputed by a receiving agency; the country did not report it. | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Statistics Division |
| Yield | 2023 | 1,271 kg/ha estimated | FAOSTAT QCL element 'Yield' for item 667 / CPC 01620 'Tea leaves', in kilograms per hectare, computed by FAO from the production and area figures rather than reported directly. Because production is GREEN LEAF and the area may be planted rather than harvested, this is green-leaf yield per hectare planted and is not comparable with a made-tea yield. FAO states that yields of permanent crops 'are not as reliable as those for temporary crops'. FAOSTAT flags this cell E, a value estimated by the publishing agency rather than reported by the country. | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Statistics Division |
Figures are reproduced as their publisher stated them and are not converted, averaged or ranked. Where two publishers disagree, both rows appear — this comes from Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Statistics Division. The largest single trap in tea statistics is that FAO’s series counts green leaf as plucked while national tea boards count finished made tea, and the two differ by roughly a factor of four and a half. The basis column says which each row is, and a figure without it is not comparable to one with it.
How production is organised
Upland smallholdings and village-scale processing, feeding two quite separate trades from the same stands: leaf for drinking, and leaf for laphet, which is steamed, packed and fermented under weight and sold as food. The second is the larger one and it changes the structure, because a fermented-leaf sector buys mature leaf on a different standard, through different intermediaries, into a market that is domestic and culinary rather than exported and beverage. Almost nothing leaves the country under its own name.
How firm this is: Inferred by TeaHQ from general knowledge of the trade rather than taken from a source that states it.
What it produces
Green and black tea from upland smallholdings in Shan State and neighbouring areas, plus a large fermented-leaf sector producing laphet for domestic consumption as food.
How firm this is: Inferred by TeaHQ from general knowledge of the trade rather than taken from a source that states it. The dual food-and-drink use is well documented; the proportion of the crop going to laphet varies by source and is not recorded here.
What it is known for
The categories this country is most associated with. Being known for a category is a fact about reputation and volume rather than about quality.
- Green tea — Tea whose oxidation is halted early by heat, keeping the leaf green and the cup fresh, vegetal or marine in character.
- Black tea — Tea taken deliberately through full enzymatic oxidation, giving the dark leaf, amber-to-red liquor and malty or brisk character most Western drinkers think of as simply 'tea'.
Growing regions in Myanmar
Named districts with their own elevation, climate and character. Elevation figures are recorded as ranges because sources disagree on where a district begins and ends.
This country in the chronology
Events on TeaHQ’s timeline that happened here or turned on this country. Each carries its date together with what kind of date it is.
- From before the written record to roughly the eighth century CE — Tea eaten and boiled before it was infused
How tea is drunk here
Laphet thoke is served at gatherings and negotiations and has a formal social role that has no equivalent in the drinking cultures TeaHQ otherwise describes. It is a tea record because the leaf is Camellia sinensis, not because it is a beverage.
Teas from Myanmar
Sources
- TeaHQ editorial synthesis — TeaHQ
Everything on this page is TeaHQ’s own synthesis of widely-attested trade and production background. No external document stands behind it, which is why the statements here describe practice rather than assert measurements.
Written comparisons
Where TeaHQ has set this producing country against something it is routinely confused with, and argued the differences out in full.
- Thailand vs Myanmar as tea origins — Two countries in the same upland belt with the same indigenous large-leaf stock, and two different relationships with it. Both have long traditions of eating fermented tea; only one of them has also built a modern export industry on imported cultivars.