1. Industry overview
Tea, commonly known as tea, generally includes the leaves and buds of the Camellia sinensis plant. Also known as tea, 槚 (jiǎ), Ming, and 荈 (chuǎn). The ingredients of tea include catechins, cholesterol, caffeine, inositol, folic acid, and pantothenic acid, which are beneficial to health. Tea beverages made from tea leaves are one of the three largest beverages in the world. Tea is a dicotyledonous plant with about 30 genera and 500 species distributed in tropical and subtropical areas. There are 14 genera and 397 species in my country, mainly produced in places south of the Yangtze River.
The development history of the tea industry is a process of continuous inheritance and innovation. In the future, as consumers' requirements for tea quality and taste continue to increase, the tea industry will face more opportunities and challenges.
Picking and processing techniques have a crucial impact on tea quality. Mao tea picking and rough processing is to pick the tea leaves from the tea trees and perform preliminary processing, such as sun-drying and frying. The midstream tea market mainly includes tea processing, packaging, sales and other links. Tea processing is to further process the raw tea, such as rolling, fermentation, etc., to change the quality and taste of the tea. Packaging is to ensure the quality and safety of tea, and also helps to increase the added value of the product. The sales link includes various sales channels and platforms, such as online and offline retail, wholesale markets, etc. The downstream market is mainly tea consumers, including individual consumers and institutional consumers. Individual consumers' tea needs and preferences vary.
2. Development status
In addition to China, the main tea-producing area, there are currently more than 50 countries in the world that produce tea, ranging as far north as 49 degrees north latitude, located in the former Soviet Union, and as far south as 33 degrees south latitude, located in South Africa. The geographical distribution of tea regions in the world is mostly concentrated in subtropical and tropical regions, which can be divided into six regions: East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, West Asia, Europe, East Africa and South America. In 2022, the total global tea imports will be 1.707 million tons, a decrease of 57,000 tons compared with 2021 and a year-on-year decrease of 3.3%.
Since the 20th century, the planting area of tea gardens in my country has continued to expand. According to statistics from the China Tea Circulation Association, as of 2022, there are 18 major tea-producing provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) in my country, and the total tea garden area will reach 49.954 million acres, an increase of 1.798 million acres from last year, a year-on-year increase of 3.73%. my country's tea gardens in 2022 The harvestable area is 4.539 million acres, an increase of 814,900 acres from last year, a year-on-year increase of 1.83%.
China's tea cultivation has a long history and rich resources, but in the past, tea production could not increase significantly due to technical limitations. However, with the development of science and technology and the promotion of agricultural technology, tea growers can use new planting methods and tools to improve the yield and quality of tea. Driven by good benefits, my country's tea farmers have further increased their enthusiasm for tea production, and tea production has gradually expanded, from 2.276 million tons in 2015 to 3.3421 million tons in 2022, with a compound annual growth rate of approximately 5.63%, maintaining a strong development trend.
Besides, China's tea production is increasing year by year, among which green tea production dominates, but other tea categories such as black tea, dark tea, oolong tea, white tea and yellow tea are also showing good development momentum. This shows that my country's tea industry is continuing to grow and develop, and is gradually moving towards a diversified and differentiated development path. In 2022, my country's green tea production will be approximately 2.066 million tons, and black tea production will be approximately 326,500 tons.
With the improvement of people's living standards, the requirements for healthy diet are also increasing. Tea has gradually become favored by consumers because of its various health effects, such as antioxidant, lowering blood lipids, etc. At the same time, with the popularization and promotion of tea culture, consumers' awareness and acceptance of tea are also increasing, thus promoting the growth of tea sales. In recent years, my country's tea production technology has been continuously improved, and the quality of tea has been greatly improved. Tea-producing areas actively promote standardized production technology, strengthen tea garden management, and improve the quality of tea raw materials, thereby producing more high-quality tea products and attracting more consumers. In 2022, the transaction volume of my country's tea wholesale market will be 31.913 billion yuan, and the transaction volume of the retail market will be 3.473 billion yuan.
What's more, in China the tea is mainly exported, and the scale of exports is much larger than the scale of imports. With the rapid development of my country's tea industry in recent years, the scale of my country's tea exports has also continued to expand. Affected by the epidemic in 2020, the export scale has declined. As the epidemic has been effectively controlled, the industry's export scale has gradually recovered. In 2022, my country's tea export volume will be 375,300 tons, a year-on-year decrease of 1.6%; the export value will be US$2.083 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 9.4%.
