How Can a Tea Cooperative Develop? A Chronicle of Nanyi Village in Wujiang Town

Although it has been more than a month since the autumn tea-picking season ended, the refreshing aroma of new tea still drifts through every corner of Nanyi Village in Wujiang Town. According to Lin Yubao, a tea farmer in Nanyi Village, the village owes this atmosphere to the tea cooperative. "Ever since the cooperative was established, tea farmers no longer have to worry about a lack of tea-making skills or blocked sales channels." The tea cooperative mentioned by Lin was established in March 2008 and now has more than 100 members. It is the first specialized tea cooperative established in Wujiang Town.

It is understood that, as of now, the tea plantations operated by Nanyi Village cover more than 800 mu, with annual fresh tea leaf output reaching more than 20,000 jin and annual net output value reaching 3 million yuan. What changes has the establishment of the cooperative actually brought to the tea farmers of Nanyi Village?

Bottleneck: Tea at "bargain-basement prices" attracted few buyers

Nanyi Village is located in the northeastern part of Wujiang Town. It is a hilly area with abundant forest resources, suitable for large-scale tea cultivation. Of the village's 540 households, nearly 60 percent are engaged in production activities centered on growing and making tea.

However, the long-standing model of self-production and self-marketing had been blocking the villagers' path to prosperity. Outdated tea plantation management and backward tea-processing techniques became weak points in development, and prices several times lower than market rates were almost the only bargaining chip for attracting tea merchants to come and buy. Not only that, the tea farmers each fought alone and were weak and isolated, while tea sales channels were also poor. In the course of doing business, vicious competition often arose, dampening the enthusiasm of the majority of tea farmers for growing and making tea.

It is understood that by the end of 2007, the problems exposed in Nanyi Village's processing and production process, namely generally low tea quality and overly single sales channels, had become increasingly serious. Because there was no unified organization to purchase tea, tea merchants had to go door to door to collect tea. "The tea merchants came and went, and it was hard to keep them around. Many families had piles of unsold tea," recalled Gao Changmiao, Party branch secretary of Nanyi Village and chairman of the tea cooperative.

Breakthrough: Establishing a tea cooperative to develop by "joining forces"

In early 2008, at the initiative of the Nanyi Village committee, the village's specialist tea-making households sat down together to study strategies for tea development. At the meeting, village Party branch secretary Gao Changmiao proposed establishing a tea cooperative, which received a response from nearly 100 tea-farming households in the village. The specialized tea cooperative was officially established with a plaque unveiled in March of the same year.

"Joining forces" to run the market, the cooperative adopted unified inspection, unified purchasing, unified pricing and unified consignment sales for its members, with management and picking handled by individual households. It also signed agreements with large tea-processing enterprises for designated supply, which not only saved intermediate logistics costs but also dispelled the tea farmers' worries. "In the past, we had to go out on our own initiative and try every possible way to use connections to find sales channels for tea. Now the cooperative handles sales in a unified way, so we no longer have to worry about sales, and for each jin of tea we earn at least 20 yuan more than when we sold it ourselves," said Lin Yubao, a tea farmer in Nanyi Village.

In addition, considering the uneven skill levels among tea growers in Nanyi Village, the Nanyi Village tea cooperative adopted a "large households helping small households" support model, setting up mutual-aid groups and organizing tea farmers to study tea-growing techniques together and jointly solve technical difficulties in tea production. Talking about the original idea, Gao Changmiao said: "Growing tea as an isolated household carries high risks and cannot reach scale. Now most tea farmers in the village have joined the mutual-aid groups. Those who do not know techniques have someone to help them, and those who do not know how to apply pesticides have someone to teach them. A larger scale has gradually taken shape, and certain costs can also be saved."

While paving a path to prosperity for tea farmers, the establishment of the Nanyi Village tea cooperative also provided them with a platform for learning. Since its establishment, the cooperative has organized member tea farmers to participate in technical training every quarter and regularly invited tea experts from Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing Forestry University, the district agriculture and forestry bureau and other departments to give lectures and guide tea production. During this year's spring tea-picking season, the cooperative also specially invited professional tea makers to come to Nanyi Village to provide on-site guidance on picking techniques, in order to change the situation of uneven tea quality in Nanyi Village.

Future: Building an independent brand belonging to Nanyi Village

In recent years, competitive pressure in the tea market has been intensifying day by day, new varieties have emerged one after another, and the processing techniques for old varieties have also been continuously improving. Against this background, the Nanyi Village tea cooperative began exploring how to further improve tea quality so as to consolidate its market position and directly meet the needs of the high-end market. It is understood that freshly picked tea leaves can sell for 36 yuan/kg on the market, but after certain preliminary processing, the circulation price in the secondary market can reach 100 yuan/kg or even more. Faced with this readily accessible opportunity to create economic value, the cooperative certainly would not miss it.