Now, it’s the season of spring tea. Many tea manufacturesin Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province are working extra hours tomakenew tea. According to Shaoxing Customs, the tea exported from Shaoxing accounts for 30% of the national total. Last year, the total export volumeexceeded 100 thousand tons, hitting a record high. The tea is sold to 77 countries and regions in the world; in January and February of this year alone, the exported tea of Shaoxing City saw a year-on-year increase of 25.7% to 10 thousand tons with the gross export value reaching RMB 170 million, a year-on-year growthof 27.2%. You can find Shaoxing tea in Starbucks, Nestle, Gelico, etc.

The largest tea export volume in Shaoxing comes from Shengzhou, which possesses 12,000 hectares of tea gardens: it is home tothe largest Longjing tea production base in China, with an annual yieldof 6000 tons accounting for one third of the total Longjing tea outputin Zhejiang Province; it has 54 gunpowder tea production and processing enterprises with an annual export volume taking up 60% of the total in China, and is the main production area, the largest processing and export distribution center of gunpowder tea.

Why does the export volume ofShaoxing tea account for such a huge share in China?

Historically,tea has been an export commodity in Shaoxing. Adjacent to port cities, Shaoxing enjoys a favorable location. The diligent and capable Shaoxing people had shipped the tea abroad 300 years ago.

The guidance and support from the government also open up a green passage for the export of Shaoxing teas. In recent years, Shaoxing City has activelypromoted famous tea, enterprises and products in countriesalong the Belt and Road Initiative to strengthen communication and cooperation with tea merchants and industry associations fromimporting countries, and has rolled outtargeted marketingin consumption countries to expandthe brand influence of Shaoxing teas.

Although the overall export volumeof Shaoxing teas has increasingly grown, the value added to the teas is not high. The average export price of Shaoxing teas is about RMB 0.02/g, with the gunpowder tea and mee tea as dominant categories; the proportion of low value added teas has surged, and exported large package tea to Morocco has increased from 16.4% in 2014 to 89.1% in 2018. The continuous increase of the proportion of large package teas results in the increasingly decrease of Shaoxing teas' value added, and has influenced the profit margin of enterprises.

It is hard for local teas to satisfy the high export demand, and thus a large part is made up by teas from other places, which in turn arises unstable factors in quantity and quality. Moreover, the higher tea-leave picking labor price leads to the continuous rising costof tea enterprises. Therefore, the tea export profit is not high.

In addition, trade barriers between countries are also an unfavorable factor for the tea export; in particular, the technical barrier ofMorocco, the largest export market for Shaoxing teas.

It is believed by experts that Shaoxing tea enterprises should focus on the high-end EU market, and be supported and encouraged to cooperate with Italy, Germany, Britain, and other countries to the EU market and improvevalue added ofexported gunpowder tea.

Some also suggest that the tea enterprises should renovate traditional tea with modern technologies, develop new products by innovation, follow the pathof Revitalizing the Tea Industry through Science and Technology, developtea products suitable for different markets, and lead the tea consumption ofthe world.

Excutive Editor:Lubin WANG