As an old Chinese saying goes, “Drink scented tea in spring to lift your mood after winter, drink green tea in summer to refresh and chill, drink wulong tea in fall for reminiscing in romantic aroma, and drink black tea in winter to wind down and warm up.”
China is the most significant country in the world for Camellia sinensis production. It is the birthplace of the cultivars and teas we know best, from white to dark (post-fermented), and it produces more than 2 million metric tons of tea every year (30–35% of worldwide production).
Given its long history with the plant: If you want to know about tea, you must learn about China.
Introduction
During the 2016 spring harvest, two severe frosts hit the country nationwide, losing about 30% of the yield. Eastern China suffered the heaviest losses with tea harvest dropping as much as 20% in parts of Jiangsu, Anhui, Fujian, and Zhejiang. This year’s spring frost hit the higher-quality early spring teas the hardest, but most of the tea-producing regions recovered and did well with late spring harvest.
An increase of new tea land this year means the total yield and value of spring tea harvest in China is expected to increase over last year, with the total yield reaching 1.01 million tons and the total value reaching 85 billion yuan (US$12.8 billion).
Crude tea
Those numbers refer to crude tea: the fresh tea leaves that have gone through initial processing stages. These stages usually involve withering, drying, and slight oxidation. The tea is then ready to consume with basic features of the final tea products, but additional refining processes can further improve the quality of a batch, such as picking out old leaves and skillful storage.
Due to the impact of this year’s spring frost in China, the quantity – and quality – of tea harvested in early spring decreased sharply. This caused both price increases and decreases, depending on the tea and region. For example, areas of Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan – where the frost hit very hard and rain was continuous in April – saw prices fall by as much as 15% because of poor quality. Meanwhile, more than a third of all regions saw their very best qualities increase in price dramatically, simply because there was not as much to go around. Famous gardens in Zhejiang, Hubei, and Sichuan saw an increase of more than 100% for crude tea. The weather accounted for a wild ride for buyers, as well as for customers, who experienced what seemed like random fluctuations in price and availability.
Cost of tea production
The costs associated with tea production in China are still up, but amount to less than last year. In 2016, tea pickers are being paid an average of 111.5 yuan (US$16.75) per day. Over the last 6 years, wages have increased more than 8% for tea workers on average, however, this year, the increase was less than in 2015. Some regions attribute this to more available labor in the countryside, likely caused by the recession in the urban industrial sector. If the overall number of people available to work the fields increases noticeably, wages can be affected.
Sales
What happens to all this spring tea? In short, within China, most tea producers are reporting slow sales from wholesalers, who are holding a large inventory of spring teas this year. While generally, the mass-market productions of spring tea (i.e. not fancy grades) are selling well, the high-end grades are stagnant. Anhui, Guangxi, Jiangsu, Guangxi, and Fujian saw a decline of as much as a third in their spring tea sales. Only 41% of the regions reported sales figures similar to what they saw in 2015. High-end tea gift sales are a similar story. More than half of tea-producing regions saw a drop in premium tea gift sales this past spring season. However, this is down from last year, when the drop-off of high-end tea gift sales was more extreme.
Source: Chinese Tea Industry Economic Research (CTIER), an affiliate of Tea Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, based in Hangzhou, Jiangsu Province, China. June 17, 2016.
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