What is the secret behind the massive tea exports

“It is exports that forced us to build ecological tea gardens and to control the quality and safety of tea from the source.” Speaking of biodiversity tea cultivation, Wang Wenli, chairman of Fujian Bama Tea Co., Ltd., looked relieved. Bama is located in Anxi County, Fujian, a nationally famous major tea-producing county, and is a national-level leading enterprise in agricultural industrialization. Since its founding in 1993, Bama tea has been exported to Japan and Southeast Asian countries. Among them, 1/3 of Japan's high-grade oolong tea comes from Bama Tea.

Faced with strict quality controls, many tea companies are deterred, but Bama faced the difficulties head-on. As Fujian's first tea industry leader listed by the Ministry of Agriculture in the construction of a quality traceability system, starting in 2002, Bama launched a tea traceability system, with detailed records of which agricultural inputs were used in the tea production process, where raw materials came from, and so on. For more than ten years, Bama has insisted on sending all pesticides or fertilizers applied to tea bases to Japan in advance for ingredient testing, ensuring they meet the standards of the importing country. This is also where the “secret” of Bama tea's massive exports lies.

“In recent years, the tea industry has developed rapidly, and consumers' awareness of food safety has also grown stronger. Relying only on a quality traceability system is far from enough.” said Lin Rongxi, deputy general manager of Bama. Whether in the EU, Japan, or domestically, tea standards are rising year by year. For Bama Tea, which has long stood in the industry's top tier for quality, more advanced tea garden planting concepts are needed.

“A good tea garden is best when 30%-40% of the land is used for growing tea and 60%-70% is used for growing trees, flowers, grass and other plants. Only in this way can there be organic integration and harmonious development.” said Wang Wenli, a representative inheritor of national-level intangible cultural heritage Tieguanyin. He keenly saw that as tea gardens aged, some tea gardens in Anxi County became less fertile and the resistance of tea plants declined, leading to frequent outbreaks of pests and diseases and a decline in quality.

Bama has always explored the scientific mechanisms for the sustainable development of tea gardens. Through continuous learning and accumulated experience, Bama began advocating biodiversity tea cultivation methods and put forward the planting concept of a “tea garden in the forest.” After years of experimentation, Bama implemented the “two reductions” technology for pesticides and fertilizers, vigorously promoted green planting and green prevention and control technologies, and set specific requirements for base tea farmers to reduce the amount of pesticides used, striving to cut pesticide use by more than half. This technology was promoted across 20,000 mu of tea gardens. Over more than a year, some of these tea gardens achieved “one reduction and one increase,” namely: costs reduced by 300 yuan per mu; quality improved by more than one grade, increasing income by 500 yuan, for a total benefit increase of more than 800 yuan per mu. Tea farmers tasted the benefits, and one household led another. More than 1,000 tea farmer households under Bama followed suit, driving surrounding farmers and also influencing all of Anxi County.

“Building a tea garden in the forest is both the company's development strategy and the intrinsic demand of consumers in the new era. We will firmly continue down this path.” Wang Wenli said: “The pesticide residue pass rate is 100%, we have ranked first in Anxi tea exports for 6 consecutive years, and our tax payments account for 1/3 of Anxi's tea industry.” Bama's concept of building a “tea garden in the forest” has brought the company substantial economic returns while also exploring a new development path for Anxi County, a major tea-producing county with 600,000 mu of tea gardens, 900,000 people involved in tea, and a total tea industry output value exceeding 10 billion yuan.