“If there is no standard in tea, then we won’t be able to recommend it to the world. Wine is popular in the world because they have a unified standard.” The deputy director of Guizhou Tea Association and Guizhou Agricultural Committee, Hu Jicheng says “One day, everyone will know the tea made in Guizhou, and recognized Guizhou’s tea. That would be the real development of Guizhou’s tea.”
As the old tea fan, Hu Jicheng hope in the tea industry, the raw material from Guizhou, made in Guizhou, and especially the brewing method of Guizhou and tea culture in Guizhou can be recommended to the whole China and the world through the demonstration of tea specialists.
Previously, in order to promote the development of the tea industry, Guizhou has launched “3-year action plan for improving tea industry in Guizhou province (2014 – 2016). It comes with the suggestion that “standardization, scale, and industrialization, is the core of promoting tea industry in Guizhou”. Therefore, Guizhou has been actively exploring the new ways and new methods of promoting Guizhou tea to the world. The available scientific data, standardized blending and transparent price structure are the three magic weapons for the tea industry in Guizhou.
“A product can only become a big industry if it is a consumer packaged goods.” Hu Jicheng, who has been devoted himself in helping Guizhou’s tea to enter the world’s market, thinks “Guizhou has become many number one in the Chinese tea market for a short period of time. The weakest link of Guizhou’s tea now is the brewing technique and the recommendation of the tea. Therefore, Guizhou has hosted several tea competitions for many consecutive years. The aim is to promote and develop the tea culture and explore the unified standards in tea.”
On August 20th, the 2016 Guizhou Tea Professional Skill Competition was concluded in Guiyang. According to the host, this competition is more focused on the skill operation and hope to demonstrate the standard operation methods and presenting the brewing process in an artistic way, which emphasize the presenting of the skill and best quality. Hu Jicheng says “Among the participants, there are old people and young kids. It shows up hope for the tea culture in Guizhou. In the future, we will invite the famous tea specialists to Guizhou, so more people will experience the charm of Guizhou’s tea.”
As the province who owns the oldest tea seeds fossil, Guizhou has maintained high level quality tea production.
According to the Inspection and Quarantine Bureau in Guizhou, January to July 2015, the exported tea batch in Guizhou is 42 batches, with a total 496.7 tons. The total value is 20.354 million US dollars, an increase of 67.6% year-on-year growth. Among those, Green tea is 18 batch, 238 tons, 3.563 million USD dollars; Red tea has 24 batches, 258.7 tons, 16.791 US dollars. The tea is mainly exported to Myanmar, Vietnam, surrounding countries and expanded to Europe, Hong Kong, Macau and other developed regions and countries.