Higher thresholds force tea production toward standardization

Recently, the EU officially implemented new pesticide residue limit standards for tea exported to the EU. The new standards mainly involve 4 pesticide residue indicators, including isoproturon, picoxystrobin, pyrimethanil and acetamiprid. All the standards are 1 times higher than before, with the content changing from 0.1ppm to 0.05ppm. In addition, testing for tolfenpyrad residues has been added for Chinese tea.

Pesticide residues are the weak point of tea export enterprises. Data shows that this year 18 batches of Chinese tea exported to the EU have been notified by the EU, with excessive pesticide residues as the main cause. According to experts, using pesticides for pest control is almost a common practice in agricultural production in various countries. Agricultural products that do not use chemical pesticides at all account for only 3%-5% of the total. China's exported tea is mainly summer and autumn tea. When the weather is hot, there are many pests and diseases, and pesticide residues are difficult to avoid. As a major province exporting green tea, will Anhui be affected by this new regulation?

“We all carry out order-based production, so for now there is no impact on tea farmers. This is thanks to the model of jointly developing bases in cooperation with leading local enterprises. The various standards for tea garden planting were greatly improved several years ago, including pesticide residue control.” said Kuang Daguo, head of the Mojianchong Famous and Superior Tea Professional Cooperative in Lu'an. The enterprise has specialized technicians stationed in tea gardens for long periods to supervise and strictly control the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides during planting and production.

“Our company has continuously been acquiring tea bases in recent years, also in order to respond to increasingly stringent export standards.” Ye Hui of Anhui Xiuning Songluo Tea Company told reporters that the new standards have had a certain impact on their company's tea exports. The quality of tea planted and produced at cooperative bases can still be controlled, but if tea raw materials are purchased from other suppliers, it is very difficult to control them. On the one hand, they vigorously promote pesticide residue standards to tea farmers, requiring them to use biological pesticides as much as possible and eliminate the use of tolfenpyrad; on the other hand, they invite third-party testing institutions to conduct quality monitoring and strictly control the tea quality of suppliers. However, because the annual export volume is relatively large, reaching 300 to 400 tons of finished tea, production relying only on bases can hardly meet market demand.

“This is a good thing, as it can attract the attention of government departments and many other parties.” Fang Guoqiang, director of the Anhui Xin'anyuan Tea Farmers Professional Cooperative, said that what they produce and export is organic tea, and the relevant pesticide residue standards are far above this standard, with all indicators being stricter. Therefore, exports are currently unaffected. Taking their cooperative as an example, they have their own organic tea garden bases, with a core area of 30,000 mu of tea gardens, radiating to 50,000 mu of tea gardens. All tea gardens adopt the cooperative model to uniformly manage products and uniformly provide pesticides, and the cooperative effectively controls product quality.

“To solve the pesticide residue problem, the state should manage it from the source. For tea production enterprises, we can only do our own part well. If we can meet the standards, we export a little more; if we cannot meet the standards, we export a little less.” Yin Tianji, chairman of Anhui Guorun Tea Co., Ltd., said that pesticide residues for export are already the final link in the tea industry chain, and doing anything at this link is of little significance. If the continuously rising foreign technical thresholds can force domestic tea production to become standardized and prohibit the production and circulation of non-standard pesticides from the source, only then will it help thoroughly eliminate the pesticide residue problem.

“Since the EU implemented new pesticide residue limit standards for tea in 2000, it has revised them almost every year. Tea enterprises and relevant departments in our province must adapt as soon as possible to the constant changes in this international pesticide residue testing standard and adapt to these rules.” Dr. Yang Qiuyun, a teacher in the Tea Science Department of Anhui Agricultural University, said that the EU uses technical trade barriers to reduce China's tea export volume. On the one hand, relevant government departments should respond and defend their rights; on the other hand, they should vigorously promote pollution-free or organic tea production among Chinese tea producers.