Bad Year for Spring Tea

CHINA - Last October the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture released a planning and production report about tea production in China in spring 2014. Because of drought in the Yangtze River district and low temperatures and persistent rain in early spring, last year’s spring teas were badly affected. The report explains that measures have now been taken to improve the management of tea gardens and to deal with other issues in the industry, such as the expansion of tea areas, the extension of the harvest period, and total harvests. The cultivated tea area, which was growing rapidly in 2013, has now been controlled to an increase of 299,821 acres, 4.8% up, but an overall drop in growth of 3% on the previous year’s total expansion. Because of low spring temperatures and early rain, picking times in eastern China were delayed last year by 7-10 days, but the good weather that followed allowed an extension of the picking period by about a week.  And China’s total output has continued to increase to a total spring harvest of 924,000 tons, up 9.54% on the previous year.