The 15th Tea Picking Tournament！
June 30, 2022.
In Minami-Kyushu City, the production area of Chiran tea, the 15th plucking competition was held in the sunlight reminiscent of summer.
In recent years, the tournament has been canceled due to weather and COVID-19 pandemic prevention.
This was the first time the conference had been held in four years, but the scale was reduced to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus infection.
In this competition, 10 teams of participants operate a machine (picking machine) that picks tea, comprehensively judges safety, accuracy, speed, etc., and determines the winner.
This year’s participating teams are TakeSeikoGarden, Ikeda Tea Co., Ltd., Nakamichi Co., Ltd., Marumasa Tea Co., Ltd., Maruhisa Tea Co., Ltd., Green Kobo Kawanabe, Hokuto, Takayoshi Akio Tea Co., Ltd., Yukimaru Daiichi Tea Co., Ltd., and Shiomihara Tea Production Association.
At first, look at the machine.
At this tournament, you will be asked to bring each of the plucking machines that you always use. Check if the plucking machine is maintained on a daily basis and if there are any blade spills.
Next, we will carry out a clothing examination.
What you should be careful about when riding the plucking machine is your clothes. Since you will be operating the machine, make sure that you are not wearing clothes that may get caught.
When all the players are ready, the competition will finally start.
Check the safety before boarding and operate the machine. In this examination, safety confirmation before and after boarding, driving operation during operation, height when picking tea, left-right difference, etc. are confirmed. You can see the picking of the nice duo of the driver who gets on and the instructor who confirms without getting on. In addition, since speed is one of the examinations in this examination, there were variations depending on each team, such as the time to judge the height of tea picking.
In this competition, you will reach the goal by going one ridge from the starting point, making a U-turn and returning to the starting point. Ten plucking machines have started to move.
It was the Shiomihara Tea Production Association that finished first.
The ranking will be decided by conducting a comprehensive examination including speed.
The results for this year are as follows.
1st place (Agriculture) Shiomihara Tea Production Association
2nd place Nakamichi Co., Ltd
3rd place (Agriculture) Green Studio Kawanabe
This tournament was the first tournament in a few years, and with the participation of parents and children and siblings, it was a very exciting tournament that could not be defeated by the hot sunshine.
Please take a look at the tournament on Instagram.
Click here for the archive (* Archive is available in Japanese only)
