Sri Lankan black tea promotion in China

The Commercial Section of the Embassy of Sri Lanka in China carried out a series of activities targeting an intense promotion of Ceylon Tea in the chinese market.

China has been identified as a very promising immerging market for tea with the younger generation showing a taste for value added teas from Sri Lanka.

In early October a promotional event was held for the Commonwealth Society of Beijing, when wife of Ambassador Karunatilaka Amunugama in her capacity as the Asia Regional Representative of the Society, hosted the members for a monthly meeting at the “Residence”.

During the meeting Sri Lanka tea with different favours were served and token packs were distributed giving a description of the unique blend of Ceylon Teas coming from distinct geographical areas.

A tea promotional drive was also held in the port city of Tianjin, in northern China during early October, national holiday season at the “World Global Village and International Shopping Festival’.

This promotional event mainly targeted the direct consumer and was described by the participants as an awareness creation exercise, which has attracted a fair demand for Sri Lanka tea. Introducing Ceylon Tea was a novel experience to this part of China.

Then from October 14 to 17 the tea industry participated at the China Tea Expo 2007, held in Beijing. The significance of this event was that Sri Lanka participated in the tea competition depicting a traditional Sri Lanka family demonstrating the making of “Ceylon Tea” using various methods of preparation and consumption using ginger and juggery.

A simultaneous presentation in Chinese was made on different varieties of tea coming from different geographical areas. Sri Lanka won an award for the best cultural presentation.

The participating companies were happy with the enthusiasm shown for Sri Lanka tea. 

Lao Zi

Books are said to be the windows of the mind but what I bumped into Wangfujing Street English Language Book Store in Beijing this time was a massive door. This book has made me discover that recognising the chinese charectors and pronouncing them correctly is most important thing in learning the language, whereas pin yin will lead to more confusion, though its contribution must never be forgotten for early stages.

A very clear natural philosophy of life with such clear connotations – flowing out like water – the most amazing book I have seen in China. This book has used least possible chinese charectors to explain such complex explanations of life.

Translating chinese into english has been one impedement because of authanticity of compiler hidden in the human brain. But this classic series has very good works and this the best one probably. Li Qian is showing me the way.

On 10th October 2007 when I crossed the bridge over Yellow River near Binzhou town in Shandong province on the expressway when we were travelling from Qingdao to Da Gao town in the Wu Di county which is about 400 kilometers drive near the sea shore where Huang he empties itself into the Bohai sea, little did I realise that I am visiting the cradle of civilization.

Taking its rise in Bayankala mountains in Qinghai province, it travels 5464 kilometers before reaching sea where it deposits muddy sediments. Also called the sorrow of China, it floods its banks every now and then, changes its course and has filled its course with silt being carried from its upper reaches. It is worthwhile noting the efforts being made to tame this river.

Only on 29th October, the sunday, I relised the fact when Google earth made virtually travel possible to go back to the point and made me thank my young friend Li Qian, who unknowingly provided me this opportunity to visit her textile company, Jide group’s spinning and weaving facility at Da Gao.

SPECIAL: India to cash in on Dragon’s crave for tea

Prakash Dubey/Commodity Online
SILIGURI: China, which is supposed to be the cradle of tea, is turning into a major consumer of India’s black tea grown in Darjeeing and Jalpaiguri region.

Even though tea came to India from China over 150 years ago, Chinese tea relishers have been traditionally known for their preference for green tea drinking. But, of late, the Chinese have begun evincing a taste for the black brew and this was a good news for India which is a major producer of black tea.

On his return from Beijing where he had gone to attend the China Tea Expo recently, Rajiv Lochan, a senior functionary of the Siliguri-based Lochan Tea Limited, a famous tea trading company, has revealed that China is now emerging as a major market for
Indian brew.

Locahn has said : “We have been participating in the expo since 2004, when it was first held, and since then, every year, our sale of Indian black tea has been increasing.”

He claimed that China’s black tea market was on an upswing and “if we are able to woo the Chinese importers to buy our Indian produce, we can accomplish milestones in our tea export prospects.” “Darjeeling tea would be the major gainer if China showed a penchant for our black tea. Darjeeling black tea is indeed unique.”

According to the official, his own company had been reaping “the bounties of a phenomenal rise in their sales in China” for past three consecutive years.

He said: “In 2004, his company’s sale was very nominal. But in 2005 our export hopped to around 10 tonnes and in 2006 we sold over 50 tonnes of black tea to the Chinese consumers. The current year is witnessing a real phenomenal growth. To date, we have
exported nearly 200 tonnes. And during my trip at the Expo we could mop up deals for 500 tonnes.”

He further said China has been primarily importing black tea from Sri Lanka despite the fact that India’s black tea “is far better in quality and taste”.

“So it is imperative for the Indian exporters to strive hard to promote our tea sale in China. But I am sure we would leave Sri Lanka far behind if we sincerely work,” Lochna added.

Currently, Unilever was the major marketing source of the Indian black tea in the Chinese market. But others were gradually making a debut there. Even Tata Tea has now entered the Chinese tea consumers sanctuary.

Indian tea exports likely to slip below 203 million kgs

KOCHI: Payment defaults, rise in global production and appreciation of rupee have combined to pull Indian tea exports this year. The exporters feel that the tea export from India is likely to close much below 203-million kg achieved last year. The India tea export in January to August stood at 103.09 million kg compared with 122.50-million kg in the same period of the previous year. The decline has been for the South Indian tea, which fell by 26.5 million kg.

North Indian tea exports gained by over 7-million kg as it comprised mostly Orthodox variety of tea going to Russia and CIS, which are still active buyers. It was Iraq’s change from hero to villain in a matter of months that hit the South Indian tea industry most. The largest buyer of Indian tea in 2006, the country is being shunned by Indian tea exporters now due to heavy payment defaults.

Iraq had purchased 40-million kg of Indian tea in 2006, which was higher than that bought by Russia and CIS, which have been traditionally the largest buyer of Indian tea. “Exporters are avoiding Iraq as payment arrears of previous exports run into crore of rupees. Even when the country floated fresh tenders, exporters were reluctant to participate,” says tea exporter Krishnakumar J Shah.

For the six-month period of January to June, Iraq’s purchase of Indian tea amounted to 3.35-million kg against 23.42-million kg in the same period last year. If Pakistan turned out to be a promising destination for Indian tea last year, the general rise in global production particularly in Kenya, has put paid to that hopes. In the January –August period, Kenyan production has jumped by 34% to 244 million kg.

Kenya, a regular supplier of tea to Pakistan, was not able to meet the full quota last year because of a drought. This led Pakistan to look towards India. But this year Kenyan supply to Pakistan has improved considerably much to the disappointment of India.

Govt brews GI tag for Darjeeling Tea

NEW DELHI: The government is planning to make Darjeeling Tea an exclusive product of India. The tea variety will soon have a geographical indication (GI) in all international markets. In the absence of GI identification, the name is being used by any manufacturer or retailer from around the world, for any variety of tea. This leads to major revenue losses for Indian tea exporters.

At present, Champagne is the only products that commands a GI worldwide. The issue of GI for Darjeeling Tea has been doing the rounds for the last couple of years through various national and international forums. It was raised in a recent meeting of the commerce and industry ministry’s consultative committee by Congress MP Rajeev Shukla.

“The commerce minister has assured that the necessary formalities for GI registration is under process and should be complete soon,” Mr Shukla told ET. While the government has filed for GI in the US and Canada, it has also spruced up the process in other international markets.

India is the second largest producer of tea in the world and Darjeeling Tea is considered to be the most sought-after variety. Despite this, India commands less than 13% share in the export market. “To a great extent, this could be attributed to the fact that India is also the largest consumer of tea in the world. However, losses due to lack of GI for Darjeeling Tea cannot be ruled out,” Mr Shukla said.

The Centre is also planning to set up a body which will monitor and regulate tea exporters. Import of tea from India has been banned in some East Asian countries, mainly on quality issues.

Till about the early 1990’s, India happened to be one of the leading tea exporters in the world. This share has continuously dipped since then, due to various reasons. However, in the last 6-7 years, there have been an aggressive takeover of tea gardens by corporates, and almost 80% tea production lies with the organised sector now.

Overall, the organised sector comprises around 1,600 tea estates with a holding size of over 10 hectares.

Fujian Cross Straits Tea Expo, 17-20^th Nov, Quanzhou, China

Fujian Provincial government is organising a meet of Fujian and Tiwan oolong tea manufecturers in Quanzhou from 17th to 20th November 2007. We are lucky to have been invited over there and plan to visit Wuyi muntains after the event, though it will be slightly late in season and it will be quite cold. Wish there is no late typhoon there.

Time has come to set up a India Black Tea & Culture Club in China with its headquarters in Beijing and Ms. Xiao Juan on its helm of affairs. She has earmarked her new 1500 sft apartment in central Beijing and proposes to have yoga, dance and cookery classes alongwith the lectures on Indian teas to interested people, of which there is great demand in China now. 

We spoke to Indian Embassy in Beijing about this project who were very encouraging to further any such activities in China. Zhu Zhonghai of China Tea Marketing Association has always been giving us moral support to do tea activities in China.

Mark has done what is always weighing so heavily on my mind alongwith Ms. Xiao Juan of Dong li tea house, Beijing and Dan Robertson of The Tea House, Chicago.

The traditional Hutong in Beijing running authentic traditional Chinese cultural arts programs

-  Booking a private event in Beijing and want something special and unique?

-  Interested in learning Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) self-healing techniques and acupuncture?

-  Been in Beijing a long time and still don’t know what an Oriental tea ceremony constitutes?

-  Learn how to cook a Chinese meal based on the Taoist 5-elements theory

-  Do you want to learn a 5-minute breathing program that gives you more energy than a shot of coffee?

-  Do you have friends or relatives coming to Beijing and want them looked after with interactive programs taking them a little deeper than just the Forbidden City??

www.the-hutong.com

Mark Thirlwall
China Made Solutions
-events made easy-

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