Continental Europe does not have the proper climate for tea production which is why Europe depends on Asian and African sources of tea. There is one part of Europe however, that has been producing tea commercially since the 19th century - the Azores.
Tea was first grown in Brazil in 1812. Tea seeds from Sri Lanka and India were introduced in the 1920s and today many types of tea are produced.
Tea production remained a minor activity up until 1951 when new plantations of tea were established in Misiones province in the north-east section of Argentina. The major plantations are on relatively flat land and tend to be large and highly mechanized.
