Indonesia has a long history of tea cultivation, tracing back to the Dutch colonial era. Based on 2014 plantation statistics, Indonesia has a total tea plantation area of 121,034 hectares — West Java alone accounts for 89,978 hectares, around 73% of the national total, and supplies roughly 70% of the country’s tea production.

Manufacturing black tea is a complex process: plucking, withering, curling, fermenting, drying, grading, and packaging. Indonesian black tea (Camellia sinensis) is processed to achieve a specific grade — more than 25 grades exist, including Dust (D1), Fannings (FANN), and Pekoe Fannings (PF). The physical appearance of these grades is often similar, making them difficult to tell apart by visual inspection without expert knowledge — during packaging, a grade can easily be mislabeled, a mistake that must be avoided before export.

Black tea is the most widely consumed tea in Indonesia and has antibacterial properties that can inhibit the attachment of Streptococcus mutans to tooth enamel.

PT. Swarna Agro is a black tea supplier, manufacturer, and exporter based in Indonesia, producing Broken Tea (BT), Fannings, Dust, and Broken Mixed (BM) grades to premium quality standards for buyers worldwide. Contact our team for continuous supply, professional service, and grades matched to your specification. See our full Tea range overview for the complete lineup.