About Us

Sabah Tea Plantation, nestled into the lush tropical wilderness of Malaysia’s first ever World Heritage Site, Mount Kinabalu, sits on a 6,200-acre land at 2,272 feet above sea level.

It is surrounded by the world’s oldest rainforest of about 130 million years. Sabah Tea Plantation is the largest single commercial tea plantation in Borneo with approximated area of 1,000 acres endowed with an interesting plant and agriculture resources, Camellia Sinensis. It is also one of the very few tea plantations in the world that certified to produce organic tea.

Company Background

In the year 1976, the state government of Sabah had decided to alienate a total of 6,200 acres of land in Kampung Nalapak to Koperasi Desa (KPD). Sabah Tea Sdn Bhd was then incorporated on April 26, 1978 as a subsidiary of KPD to operate and manage the tea plantation. The Honorable Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad official opened the Sabah Tea Plantation on February 19, 1984.

In the year 1987, the management of Sabah Tea had decided to form a joint-venture with Tate & Lyle (29%), Commonwealth Development Corporation (20%) with the remaining 51% shares held by KPD. The reason as why the management decided to approach this strategy was to lighten the burden on the government and to gain intellectual property of Tate & Lyle’s tea expertise. However, in 1995, the government had decided to privatize Sabah Tea Sdn Bhd as they believe that by doing so, Sabah Tea would be able to reach greater heights and make the country proud.

An Ipoh based company, Yee Lee Corporation Bhd, acquired the entire shares from Sabah Tea Sdn Bhd and Desa Tea Sdn Bhd in 1997. Yee Lee Corporation was incorporated in 1973 and was listed on the Main Board of The Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange in 1993. They are well-diversified company with active subsidiaries covering manufacturing, distributing and selling a wide array of products both locally and internationally.