Community
26 December, 2022
Nerada’s Malanada tea room to close indefinitely
AFTER 20 years the much-loved Nerada Tea Room in Malanda will brew its last pot today with owners citing a challenging past few years as the reason for the closure.
In a statement, Tablelands company Nerada Tea said issues including staffing, a decline in international tourism and rising supplier costs meant the operation was no longer being viable to run.
The company is now Australia’s largest tea estate and last year celebrated fifty years of growing tea in Far North Queensland.
Nerada Tea Chairman John Russell said the decision to close the tea room was a difficult one.
“It has been a tough few years for all businesses, but in rural areas it has been particularly hard,” Mr Russell said.
However, there is good news.
Tea lovers can still get their daily cup of Nerada with operations to remain unaffected at the company’s 360-hectare plantation, which delivers approximately 750 million cups of tea to the nation every year.
Nerada currently produces a range of pesticide-free black and organic herbal teas with plans to add more to their range.
Although the company hasn’t ruled out reopening the tea room when economic conditions improve the present focus is on the tea estate.
“Never say never, if the economic environment improves, we hope we can bring a visitor experience back to the tea estate at some point in the future,” said John Russell, Chairman of Nerada Tea.
“For now, we will be focusing on our tea estate. We are currently converting some of the tea fields including the Taraqwet tea field to organic certification, which is a big undertaking but very rewarding.
“The tea room closure doesn’t affect our tea production, so we will continue producing the high quality, Australian-grown tea that we’re known for.”
