History of tea in India Upper Assam; in 1840, the Assam Tea Company began the commercial production of tea in the region, run by indentured servitude of the local inhabitants. [This tea was not for export - dis ambiguities needed] Beginning in the 1850s, the tea industry rapidly expanded, consuming vast tracts of land for tea plantations. By the turn of the century, Assam became the leading tea producing region in the world. India was the top producer of tea for nearly a century, but recently China has overtaken India as the top tea producer due to increased land availability. Indian tea companies have acquired
Brazilian tea culture industry, was heavily dependent on slave labor to work on the plantations. When slavery was abolished in 1888, the tea trade collapsed. In the 1920s, the tea industry was revived by Japanese immigrants, who introduced tea seeds from Sri Lanka and India. Prior to this time, only Chinese tea varieties had been grown in Brazil. Brazil's largest tea-producing region is near Registro, a coastal city near São Paulo. Registro is in the Brazilian Highlands and forms a terrain of low rolling hills that are ideal for mechanized tea production. The growing season in Brazil is from September to April; the