BOH Plantations Sdn Bhd ( doing business as BOH) is the largest black tea manufacturer in

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

, with both domestic and international distribution owned by BOH Plantations Sdn Bhd. The BOH Tea Plantation, which is located at Cameron Highlands,

Pahang Pahang (;Jawi alphabet, Jawi: , Pahang Hulu Malay: ''Paha'', Pahang Hilir Malay: ''Pahaeng'', Ulu Tembeling Malay: ''Pahaq)'' officially Pahang Darul Makmur with the Arabic honorific ''Darul Makmur'' (Jawi: , "The Abode of Tranquility") is a ...

, Malaysia, is also the largest

tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and northe ...

plantation in Malaysia. BOH Plantations was founded in 1929 by J. A. Russell, a British-born British-educated businessman during the British colonial era in Malaya. Russell arrived in

Kuala Lumpur , anthem = '' Maju dan Sejahtera'' , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia , pushpin_map_caption = , coordinates = , su ...

at age seven, in 1890; the primary export was then tin. Prior to BOH, Russell had worked in the Straits Trading Company, learning to speak several

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

dialects (along with

Malay Malay may refer to: Languages * Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore ** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century ** Indonesi ...

) and made contacts with wealthy Chinese tin miners. Besides investing in tin, Russell and his brothers (Philip, Donald, and Robert) invested in the nascent rubber industry in 1908. J. A. and Philip also invested in railway-related construction, including the new Kuala Lumpur railway station. In 1913, Russell purchased almost a third of the real estate in the town of Ipoh. He and Donald (a mining engineer from the Colorado School of Mines) founded a colliery at Batu Arang, in

Selangor Selangor (; ), also known by its Arabic language, Arabic honorific Darul Ehsan, or "Abode of Sincerity", is one of the 13 Malaysian states. It is on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia and is bordered by Perak to the north, Pahang to the east ...

around 25 kilometres from the capital.

History

Despite the worldwide

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

at the time BOH was founded in 1929, Russell was optimistic about the tea plantation business, due to steady demand. Russell was granted a concession of land (together with veteran tea-planter A.B. Milne from

Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

) for the first BOH tea garden in Habu (it was also the first tea garden in the Cameron Highlands). At the time, the land was undeveloped jungle terrain, on steep slopes; with a

steamroller A steamroller (or steam roller) is a form of road roller – a type of heavy construction machinery used for leveling surfaces, such as roads or airfields – that is powered by a steam engine. The leveling/flattening action is achieved through ...

and mule-teams, the stepped plantation was created. As of 2016, BOH Plantations owns four tea gardens: in Habu (the original), Fairlie Tea Garden, Sungai Palas Tea Garden, and Bukit Cheeding in Selangor. There is a packaging factory near the main garden. BOH offers factory tours. Together, these four plantations total about 1200

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is a ...

s of land, and produce about 4 million kg of tea every year, accounting for about 70% of Malaysian tea output.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:BOH Plantations Tea companies of Malaysia

Plantations A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

Agriculture companies established in 1929 Food and drink companies established in 1929 1929 establishments in British Malaya Privately held companies of Malaysia

History

See also

References

External links