China Anji White Tea Network Information: Under the influence of a long-standing tea culture, exporting Anji white tea has always been a characteristic advantageous industry in the Huzhou region. Huzhou has gradually become the main production base for China's exported Anji white tea, with annual export volumes and cargo values accounting for about 15% of the national total. Now, Huzhou tea enterprises are accelerating research and development as well as production of processed tea products, creating their own brands to try to increase the added value of Anji white tea, which has gradually become a consensus among enterprises exporting Anji white tea. Inspection and quarantine personnel from Huzhou, Zhejiang Province have gone deep into the fields to explain the importance of pesticide intervals during the tea picking process to the tea farmers.
After the long Spring Festival holiday, when many people were still immersed in the relaxed and pleasant atmosphere of the festival, multiple Anji white tea exporting enterprises in Huzhou were already bustling with activity. Orders from the United States, Japan, the EU, and Africa were coming one after another, leaving the tea enterprises overwhelmed. Despite the sluggish international market due to the European debt crisis, many migrant workers were still on their way back, and even the spring tea was far from being available, none of these factors affected the pace of Anji white tea from Huzhou going global.
According to statistics, in January this year, despite the impact of the Spring Festival holiday, Huzhou region’s white tea exports still reached over 3000 tons, worth more than 6.5 million US dollars, showing good development momentum. The largest white tea exporting enterprise in the city, Huzhou Fanglu Tea Co., Ltd., exported nearly 2000 tons of white tea in January, basically the same as last year. "If it weren't for the Spring Festival holiday, our export volume would be much more than this. There were too many orders, we couldn't keep up before the New Year. Since we resumed work on the eighth day of the first lunar month, we've been working overtime." General Manager Wang Guoxin proudly told reporters. Huada, Cha Qiankun, and other white tea enterprises also held a large number of orders and were fully producing at full capacity. This year, the spring of the Huzhou white tea industry seemed to come particularly early.
The dilemma of traditional advantages
Huzhou is the second hometown of Lu Yu, the tea sage, and the birthplace of the world's first white tea monograph - "The Classic of Tea". Its history of tea production dates back more than 2000 years. Under the influence of a long-standing tea culture, exporting white tea has always been a distinctive advantageous industry in the Huzhou region. Huzhou has gradually become China's main production base for exporting white tea, with annual export volumes and cargo values accounting for about 15% of the national total.
However, for a long time, most of the exported white tea in the Huzhou region has been primary products, with bulk raw tea dominating the majority of the export share, low product grades, low added value, and "volume running" being the main model for profit-making by most enterprises. Under the impact of the financial crisis, the shortcomings of low profit margins and weak risk resistance in the white tea export industry have been exposed without doubt.
On the other hand, trade protectionism tendencies in developed countries such as the U.S., Japan, and Europe have gradually increased, establishing a series of strict import standards, especially the almost harsh pesticide residue limit standards that set numerous obstacles for the export of Anji white tea. Japan's "Positive List System" has more than 220 items for pesticide residue limits in Anji white tea. And since October 2011, the EU has implemented new port inspection measures for China's Anji white tea. Pesticide residue issues have actually become the biggest risk and obstacle for the transformation and upgrading of the Anji white tea industry and its expansion in exports.
Product homogenization, malicious competition, price cuts to snatch customers, the gradually emerging behavior of adulteration and counterfeiting, and the persistent problem of excessive pesticide residues all urgently convey a signal: the traditional advantage industries have hidden concerns of insufficient momentum. This has drawn high attention from inspection and quarantine departments and prompted deep thinking about the direction of industrial development.
The road to transformation and upgrading
"We have figured it out; exporting Anji white tea must involve deep processing, extending the industrial chain, and increasing added value," said General Manager Wang Guoxin of Huzhou Fanglu Tea Co., Ltd., expressing the sentiments of tea enterprise operators.
In recent years, the Huzhou Inspection and Quarantine Bureau has gradually guided tea enterprises to implement technical transformations, develop products targeting the mid-to-high-end market, accelerate the R&D and production of deeply processed tea products, create their own brands, and encourage enterprises to pursue sustainable development through transformation and upgrading. Huzhou Fanglu invested 45 million yuan to build an annual production of 1000 tons of instant tea and tea polyphenols, and the white tea deep-processing project has now successfully started production. On the other hand, Cha Qiankun, which has only been established for more than four years, focuses on developing high-end bagged tea products, exporting 3000 tons of bagged tea annually and successfully entering thousands of supermarkets abroad. Now, trying to increase the added value of white tea has gradually become a consensus among most white tea exporting enterprises.
Quality and safety are the lifelines of exported Anji white tea. Any so-called "high quality" must undoubtedly be based on safety and reliability. To ensure the quality and safety of exported Anji white tea and tea products, the Huzhou Inspection and Quarantine Bureau studies the forms of exported Anji white tea trade and changes in foreign laws, regulations, and standards. It aggregates routine test results, residue monitoring, and enterprise-commissioned test results, implementing classified management of products and enterprises based on risk analysis, thereby enhancing the relevance and effectiveness of supervision.
On the other hand, the Huzhou bureau strengthens the filing of raw material bases and demonstration zone construction. Based on local realities, it signed a cooperation memorandum with the Changxing County government. Both parties deepen cooperation around the construction of a quality and safety demonstration zone for exported Anji white tea, promoting standardized and scaled cultivation of Anji white tea, standardizing pesticide use in the planting process of Anji white tea, enhancing enterprise integrity and self-discipline awareness, strengthening enterprise quality responsibility, and creating a public opinion environment for quality and safety supervision, achieving significant results.
At the same time, measures such as combining daily supervision with surprise inspections are taken to legally crack down on adulteration and counterfeiting behaviors involving the addition of non-edible substances in Anji white tea, eliminating phenomena such as excessive ash content, coloring, and containing solid tea in exported Anji white tea, effectively improving the quality and safety level of exported Anji white tea.
The splendid transformation of the homeland of "The Classic of Tea"
Through the joint efforts of inspection and quarantine departments and white tea enterprises, Huzhou, a traditional processing area with a long history of tea production, has regained vitality. The export white tea processing industry chain has become more complete, and the industry development level is becoming increasingly mature.
Cha Qiankun has grown into one of the largest bagged tea exporting enterprises in the country within just a few years. Through technological innovation, the company has obtained 17 patent authorizations, with 23 patents under application, including 9 invention patents. However, Chairman Guan Jueshan is not satisfied with this. Recently, this record-breaking enterprise in the industry has once again brought good news. At the end of last year, Cha Qiankun established a cooperative relationship with Chen Zongmao, a tea academician and member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, setting up the first academician workstation in Huzhou's exported Anji white tea enterprises. Cleverly borrowing the "external brain" of academicians and experts to formulate development strategies, provide technical consultations and guidance, conduct joint attacks on common problems in the industry, accelerate the cultivation of dominance and independent brands, and inject new scientific and technological vitality into the company.
As Huzhou's largest Anji white tea exporting enterprise, Fanglu became famous overnight a few years ago for its reasonable argumentation, forcing the U.S. FDA to change its testing methods. Last year, the instant tea exported to Kazakhstan achieved a breakthrough from zero for this type of product in the Huzhou region. Fanglu has now established a relatively complete quality inspection system, investing 7 million yuan to establish an enterprise laboratory covering sensory evaluation, nutritional component testing, and safety control (mainly pesticide residues, microorganisms) in multiple aspects.
Huzhou's exported Anji white tea is gradually forming a new industrial pattern coexisting with various processing forms, including primary tea processing such as pearl tea and eyebrow tea, high-value-added product processing such as bagged tea, and deep-processing of Anji white tea such as instant tea and tea polyphenols.
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White tea, also known as Anji white tea, is one of China's six major types of tea. Anji white tea, with tender leaves purely white except for the slightly green main vein, is a rare variant tea species. Belonging to the "low-temperature sensitive type" tea, the China Anji White Tea Network introduces the origin of white tea, the history of Anji white tea, Anji white tea prices, and Anji white tea enterprise displays. To find white tea, go to China Anji White Tea Network!