Black tea in China

Abstract

The study relates to regional distribution, cultivars and quality characteristics of Chinese black tea, its main scientific and technological achievements since 1950, development trends, major promotional strategies and the main challenges faced by the Chinese black tea industry. The paper systematically investigates and analyzes its trade prospects. The results reveal that since 1950, Chinese black tea industry has experienced revival in two important stages of development and structural optimization, which first resulted in an all-time high output of 131,300 tons of black tea in 1989, after which it was followed by a continuous dramatic drop to only 45,300 tons in 2007. However, since 2007, because of constant improvement in structural optimization and overall quality of black tea, the output of Chinese black tea increased again year by year, reaching a total of 68,500 tons in 2010. The main challenge faced by the Chinese black tea industry is its low export volume because of its high production cost due to which its export price is higher than that of the world average. To promote sustainable development of Chinese black tea industry in the future, we have put forward four strategies i.e. 1), Relying on science and technology; 2), Optimization of its production structure; 3), Speeding up establishment of Chinese international tea auction center; and 4), Creation of famous tea brands of Chinese black tea.