The Adygeya branch of the all-Russia scientific research institute of flower growing and subtropical plants of the Russian Agricultural Academy has bred and patented the new sort of tea, the most Northern one in the world, news agency RIA Novosti reports citing Eduard Pchikhachev, the director of the branch.

The tea was reportedly named Adygeysky.

The new sort was included into the federal sort register. It was obtained as a result of 15 selections from one of the sorts of Chinese tea. The process lasted about 70 years.

According to Mr. Pchikhachev, the new sort has unique characteristics due to the influence of climatic zones. The content of tannin in it reaches 16%, while in other teas it averages 9%. Most of the tea sorts grow in subtropical zones, which don’t include the Republic of Adygeya.

“We have planted 500 tea seeds and intend to plant another 500 in the fall. All of this is the foundation stock. We plan to create plantations it its base. The first crop is to be harvested in seven years,” Mr. Pchikhachev added.

Part of the scientific work and salaries are financed by the Institute. However production expansion requires capital investment. The institute specialists are currently designing a business plan in order to send a request to the Adygeya Government to include tea breeding into the list of agricultural sectors participating in the state subsidies program, the news source said.

The Republic of Adygeya has the regional tea breeding development program “Chai Adygeyi” (The Adygeya’s Tea) till 2010. Under the program, the specialists examined earth and conditions in the republic and discovered about 9,000 hectares of land that could be used for tea growing.

Tea breeding started in the Republic of Adygeya in 1938. Back then eight land lots were planted with tea. The projects were carried out in the fields of the villages of Novosvobodnaya, Kurdzhipskaya, Sevastopolskaya, Novoprokhladny, Shuntuke, Maykop testing station VIR and Makhosh-Polyana. These days the tea is only grown in the village of Tsvetochny where the base center used to be located.