Representatives of more than 30 co-op-affiliated tea enterprises attended the meeting.
On June 16, the first session of the “Meet the Changing Situation, Open a New Game, Promote High-Quality Development” tea-industry themed forum series, hosted by China Co-operation Times · Tea Weekly All-Media, was held online. The theme of this forum was “Working Hand in Hand to Open a New Chapter for Supply and Marketing Cooperative Tea Enterprises (hereinafter ‘co-op tea enterprises’)”, and representatives of more than 30 co-op tea enterprises from supply and marketing cooperative systems across the country attended the meeting.
Tea is a traditional industry of the supply and marketing cooperatives. Through the different historical periods from the planned economy to the socialist market economy, co-op tea enterprises have always played an important role and have consistently been an indispensable force in China’s tea industry. After decades of development, the supply and marketing cooperative system has fostered specialized tea markets and production enterprises, led the establishment of a number of specialized tea cooperatives, and built e-commerce channels; some provinces are now reactivating the tea segment of their supply and marketing cooperatives, with business and services covering the entire industry chain — tea production, processing, distribution, education, scientific research, and industry organizations.
This meeting aimed to strengthen exchange and interaction among co-op tea enterprises nationwide and to explore models of cooperation between co-op tea enterprises in producing and marketing regions. In the keynote session, Xia Bing, office director of Zhejiang Tea Group; Liu Xinguo, deputy general manager of Hunan Tea Industry Group; Chen Siyuan, general manager of Sichuan Shucha Industrial Group; Jin Li, general manager of Hubei Tea Industry Group; He Meizhen, deputy general manager of Wuzhou Tea Factory in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region; and Lin Yanteng, director of Fujian’s Zhangzhou Tea Factory, each introduced their respective situations on behalf of producing-region enterprises. Wang Yang, planning department manager of China Co-op E-Commerce Co., Ltd.; Liu Yong, general manager of Shandong’s Jinan Tea Group; Zhang Lili, manager of Qianhexiang Tea House under the Taiyuan Fruit, Tea and Non-staple Food Corporation of Shanxi Province; Hong Qiang, deputy general manager of Fujian Supply and Marketing Tea Industry Group; and Chen Jianzhong, deputy general manager of China White Tea City, also spoke as representatives of distribution channels.
In their remarks, besides introducing their enterprises, the guests held in-depth discussions on how co-op tea enterprises can cooperate and jointly open up markets. Jin Li, general manager of Hubei Tea Industry Group, said she hoped to step up communication and cooperation with co-op tea enterprises across the country and, through the supply and marketing cooperative system platform, explore more linkage models to bring Hubei’s fine teas to every part of the country. Liu Xinguo, deputy general manager of Hunan Tea Industry Group, said he hoped to work in full concert with co-op tea enterprises to connect the chain of tea-industry development. Liu Yong, general manager of Jinan Tea Group, said producers and sellers can exchange and get to know each other through field visits, discussion forums, promotional events, and other formats; Jinan Tea Group will also give play to its own platform advantages to help tea enterprises connect with sales-region markets and open distribution channels. Zhang Lili, manager of Qianhexiang Tea House, said that through this meeting Qianhexiang had made the acquaintance of co-op tea enterprises across the country and met the “regular army”. She hoped to strengthen cooperation with co-op tea enterprises and enrich Qianhexiang’s sales categories. The guests all agreed that this meeting had built an exchange platform for linkage and cooperation among co-op tea enterprises, of great significance for promoting the development of co-op enterprises.
Jiang Tong, senior partner of Hejun Consulting, commenting on the development of co-op tea enterprises.
At the close of the meeting, Jiang Tong, senior partner of Hejun Consulting, gave comments on the development of co-op tea enterprises. Jiang Tong suggested that in their development strategies co-op tea enterprises should build on their strengths and clarify their thinking. Provincial-level tea enterprises should shoulder the leading role in integrating tea resources across their province, thereby building core competitiveness, and enhance market competitiveness through professionalized operations, standardized construction, branded output, and intelligent empowerment. In addition, co-op tea enterprises also face problems such as an irrational talent structure and should attach importance to bringing in marketing and business-administration talent.
Old Tea Enterprises Glowing with New Vitality
During the forum, reporters from China Co-operation Times · Tea Weekly All-Media noticed that in recent years, as supply and marketing cooperatives have exerted themselves across the board in serving agriculture, co-op tea enterprises have taken on a new pattern of development.
In the planned-economy era, the supply and marketing cooperatives, as the main channel of tea production and distribution, established a number of tea factories and tea companies. In 1984, after the State Council issued the “Report on Adjusting Tea Purchase-and-Sales Policy and Reforming the Circulation System” and the tea market was gradually liberalized, some co-op tea enterprises were eliminated in market competition for various reasons, while others, through enterprise restructuring, equity reorganization, and other forms, glowed with new vitality and became a fresh force in the development of China’s tea industry.
Zhejiang Tea Group, founded in 1950 as an enterprise directly under the Zhejiang Provincial Supply and Marketing Cooperative, has long been a main force in China’s tea exports, with an average annual export volume of 30,000–40,000 tons and a sales network reaching nearly 70 countries and regions worldwide. In recent years, while running its export business well, Zhejiang Tea Group has also directly or indirectly taken controlling stakes in more than 20 tea enterprises and actively developed the domestic market. In 2021, the group’s annual sales exceeded 1 billion yuan.
Hunan Tea Industry Group, founded in 1988, is the leader of Hunan’s tea industry. In recent years, through equity participation and controlling stakes, the group has successively integrated dozens of tea resources and brand resources within Hunan Province, such as Junshan Yinzhen, Yuanling Jietan, and Guzhang Tea Factory, focusing on building tea brands including “Baishaxi”, “Xiangyi”, “Zhenxi”, and “Xiaoxiang”, forming a family of Hunan tea brands.
Hubei Tea Industry Group, likewise founded in 1950, is an enterprise directly under the Hubei Provincial Supply and Marketing Cooperative. The group mainly deals in Hubei’s “Qingzhuan tea”, “Mizhuan tea”, “Yihong”, and other famous premium Hubei green teas. Aiming to serve agriculture, rural areas, and farmers and to promote industrial upgrading, the group is committed to building a tea-industry development platform, integrating and optimally allocating Hubei’s tea-industry resources, and boosting the high-quality development of Hubei’s tea industry.
Apart from the above three groups, which are controlled and formed by provincial-level supply and marketing cooperatives, there is also a group of tea factories established in the 1950s that have always remained wholly co-op-owned tea enterprises. Zhangzhou Tea Factory and Wuzhou Tea Factory are cases in point. Zhangzhou Tea Factory is an enterprise directly under the Zhangzhou Municipal Supply and Marketing Cooperative. As the safeguarding and inheriting body of a Fujian provincial-level intangible cultural heritage item — the traditional refining craft of Zhangzhou oolong tea — the products made with this craft, including Tieguanyin, Huangdan, Liuxiang, and Yizhichun, are not only favored by domestic consumers but also sell as far as Japan, Southeast Asia, and other countries and regions, with annual sales now exceeding 50 million yuan. Wuzhou Tea Factory is an enterprise directly under the supply and marketing cooperative of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and is China’s largest leading Liubao tea enterprise.
In recent years, Wuzhou Tea Factory has actively innovated its processing techniques and, riding on the strength of its “Sanhe” brand Liubao tea products, has risen as a new force: in the first four months of 2022 alone, its sales broke through 131 million yuan, up 42.45% over the same period in 2021. Within the supply and marketing cooperative system there are many other old co-op tea factories with histories of more than 60 years — Hunan’s Baishaxi Tea Factory and Yiyang Tea Factory, and Hubei’s Zhaoliqiao Tea Factory, for example, were all once designated factories for border-sale tea. In recent years these enterprises have actively developed the domestic market and built tea brands — old trees putting out new branches.
Zhang Lili, manager of Qianhexiang Tea House, introducing the “Qianhexiang jasmine tea blending craft”.
Within the supply and marketing cooperative system there is also a century-old “time-honored brand” tea enterprise in the distribution field — Qianhexiang Tea House. Founded in 1918, Qianhexiang operates six product series covering hundreds of items. In 2013, the “Qianhexiang jasmine tea blending craft” was inscribed on Shanxi Province’s list of intangible cultural heritage. The craft takes finished jasmine teas of comparable grades from different origins, draws on the strengths of each, and blends them scientifically and rationally in set proportions, creating a “Jin (Shanxi) flavor” suited to the alkaline water of the north — the soul of Qianhexiang’s survival and development over a hundred years. Qianhexiang has opened 5 exclusive shops and 17 counters in Shanxi Province and is a “time-honored brand” known to every household in Taiyuan.
New Tea Enterprises Breaking Old Impressions
In the past, co-op tea enterprises often left people with the impression of lacking vitality, having outdated packaging, and showing insufficient product innovation. In recent years, as supply and marketing cooperatives have stepped up their service to agriculture, strengthened their sense of market competition, and attached importance to bringing in professional talent, this picture is gradually changing. Some provincial supply and marketing cooperatives have re-established tea companies. In 2018, the Sichuan Provincial Supply and Marketing Cooperative formed Shucha Industrial Group, which, starting from the four segments of tea technology, tea culture, the tea industry, and tea finance, and with seven subsidiaries under it, is expanding across the entire industry chain — tea garden bases, incubation of Sichuan tea brands, teahouse trusteeship, and development of new-style tea beverages — and, through an “offline agency + online e-commerce” sales model, is committed to leading the development of Sichuan’s tea industry and building new Sichuan tea brands.
Hong Qiang, deputy general manager of Fujian Tea Group, introducing the Gongxiao Fucha House built by the company.
After reorganizing and restructuring its original co-op tea enterprises, the Fujian Provincial Supply and Marketing Cooperative established Fujian Tea Industry Group. The brand the group created, “Gongxiao Fucha”, is an internet-famous brand in the truest sense. The brand has always adhered to the philosophy of “adding to product quality, subtracting from consumer prices”: restoring tea to its essence, so that every packet of tea can brew an extraordinary mellow aroma yet still sell at a people-friendly price — truly making good tea that ordinary folk can afford. “Gongxiao Fucha” follows the guochao (national-tide) cultural route, collaborating with contemporary artists to create guochao packaging and opening the nostalgic, internet-famous check-in spot “Gongxiao Fucha House”, letting traditional Chinese tea enter the hearts of young people, making the ancient leaf young again, opening up the young consumer market, and creating a third space where today’s young people drink tea and connect.
In 2020, the Anhui Provincial Supply and Marketing Cooperative also reorganized its Anhui Tea Company, and Anhui Tea Industry Group Co., Ltd. was established under the control of Anhui Supply and Marketing Group. As a co-op-affiliated enterprise of the Anhui Provincial Supply and Marketing Cooperative, Hui Tea Group upholds the mission of “revitalizing Hui tea and setting the benchmark”. With the attention and support of the Anhui Provincial Party Committee, the provincial government, and the provincial supply and marketing cooperative, and relying on Anhui’s tea-industry resource advantages, it applies modern enterprise management to vigorously implement the “Hui Tea Rise Strategy”, fully develop domestic and international markets, reshape the Hui tea brand from the ground up, and extend the industry chain in every direction — committed to building the group into a leading enterprise guiding the development of Anhui’s tea industry.
“Brick-and-Mortar + E-Commerce” Platform Advantages Begin to Show
Historically, the supply and marketing cooperatives enjoyed geographical advantages and established a number of wholesale markets for agricultural products such as fruits, vegetables, grain, and oil — including tea wholesale markets, such as the Jinan Tea Wholesale Market and the Chashan Tea Trading Market in Dongguan, Guangdong. Founded in 1996, the Jinan Tea Wholesale Market is an enterprise directly under the Jinan Municipal Supply and Marketing Cooperative. As the tea-trading center with the largest transaction volume among China’s sales regions, it now hosts 600 tea merchants from 21 tea-producing areas across the country and is praised by the industry as “the No. 1 tea market north of the Yangtze”. In 2022, its transaction volume is expected to exceed 4 billion yuan.
In 2021, China White Tea City — jointly funded and built by China Co-op Agricultural Products Wholesale Market Holdings Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of China Co-op Group, and the People’s Government of Zhenghe County, Fujian Province — became a special kind of producing-region wholesale market. China White Tea City brings together key white tea enterprises from more than 85% of the country’s producing areas; 139 tea enterprises have moved in, making it the domestic distribution center with the richest range of white tea categories.
In recent years, the rural e-commerce industry has risen as a new force, playing an important role in broadening sales channels for agricultural and sideline products from areas that have shaken off poverty, sustaining industrial development in those areas, promoting continued income growth for farmers, and helping consolidate and expand the achievements of poverty alleviation while advancing rural revitalization across the board.
Wang Yang, planning department manager of China Co-op E-Commerce Co., Ltd., introducing the background to the birth of the “832 Platform”.
The “832 Platform” is an online sales platform for agricultural and sideline products from areas that have shaken off poverty, built and operated by China Co-op E-Commerce Co., Ltd. under the guidance of four authorities: the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the National Rural Revitalization Administration, and the All China Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives. Since going live on January 1, 2020, the platform has upheld its political, policy, and public-welfare attributes, integrating the functions of “trading, service, and supervision”, so that all of society can widely participate in purchasing agricultural and sideline products from areas that have escaped poverty, providing support for the comprehensive revitalization of rural industries. Tea is one of the important commodities sold online on the “832 Platform”. To date, 15,000 tea products have been listed on the “832 Platform”, with cumulative transactions of 1.5 billion yuan. By sales volume, the top five tea categories are green tea, black tea, Maojian, vine tea, and dark tea; green tea accounts for a relatively large share, about 1 billion yuan, and black tea more than 300 million yuan.
In recent years, in the process of deepening comprehensive reform, expanding the fields of service to agriculture, and advancing rural revitalization across the board, more and more supply and marketing cooperative enterprises have thrown themselves into the tide of tea-industry development, writing a new chapter for co-op tea enterprises in the new era.
Produced by: China Co-operation Times · Tea Weekly All-Media
—
Author: Lam Sam (LamSam), the Old Tea Head
ZENTEA MANOR
Alliance Supply Chain Services Limited
Unit 902-3, 9/F, Mini Cube, 10 Sam Chuk Street, San Po Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong
www.zentea-shop.com Email:info@zentea-shop.com
