The 5th global tea producer, Turkey imports tea mainly from Sri Lanka

Turkey is the 5th biggest tea producer in the world after Sri Lanka, Kenya, India, and China being the biggest producer and exporter.
Turkey produces around 260 KMT/year black tea with the Rize region leading the majority with 65% of the total production.
However, national production barely meets the domestic demand due to excessive domestic consumption and only in the Rize region in 2019 there were 17.260 MT imported. These import volumes are indeed the total volumes imported in Turkey. Tea Specialized Customs is located in Rize and all tea imports have to go through this specialized customs and then distributed throughout the country.
The imported tea leaves are being blended with Turkish leaves thus reducing the production cost. Because the imported tea comes at less cost even after the import duties added.