Tea farmers say that tea bags will not be done with fine tea.
source: twenty-first Century economic report
Feng Shu Qin
despite Lipton denying that no "Road tea" is denied, but industry insiders say to gain higher profits, Chen tea or even tea at the end of tea does not rarely see
in April 25th, an environmental organization reported that 17 kinds of pesticide residues were detected in China's largest tea brand "Lipton" in China, including Lipton green tea, Lipton jasmine tea and Lipton Tieguanyin tea with 3 kinds of banned pesticides in China, including endosulfan, Do-win and three chloroacarol. Subsequently, there were media reports that Lipton used crude summer and autumn tea as raw material for processing tea bags. The news came out, and the "best tea from the best tea garden" announced in lien's official website was immediately questioned.
Hefei Hui tea industry related people told reporters that the tea is commonly known as "big road tea" in summer and autumn season, the purchase price is very low, the purchase price of 20 yuan per kilogram, and spring fresh leaves, like Mount Huangshan area of Taiping monkey famous tea purchase price per kilogram is about 80 yuan.
Ceng Xiwen, vice president of China's Greater China, told reporters that Lipton had never used "big road tea", and all the tea used was spring tea from late April to early May. Lipton teabag is a blend of tea, raw materials from different regions, adjusted by different flavors of tea, with a uniform taste and no stripe.
, however, a tea industry expert told the reporter that the situation of tea bag with tea in summer and autumn is not uncommon in the industry. On the one hand, it can compress the cost of raw materials, on the other hand, to gain more profits by raising prices. There is an internal marketing staff of Huizhou Fu tea company, telling reporters that there are still a lot of tea that can not be sold, which is sold to the enterprises producing tea cakes and tea drinks at a low price.
Lipton raw material traceability
Lipton used coarse summer and autumn tea as raw materials for processing tea bags. The vice president of China's great China area, Zeng Xi Wen, responded to deny that the green tea raw materials were all spring tea, but not the first dialing of tea in spring. Spring tea is not resistant to foam, and it is not suitable for tea bag.
at the same time, he said that the bag tea belongs to the match tea, is the tea's deep processing product, its own added value is relatively high, and relative to the scattered tea, Lipton's tea bag price is not high. The added value of Lipton teabag includes not only technical cost, allocation cost, but also distribution cost.
but some experts point out that some tea making needs unique technology, such as high added value of artificial tea, but human cost is a large proportion. Lipton's bagged tea is industrialized, and its cost and added value will not be higher than that of loose tea.
Lipton is the brand of United Lihua. After entering China in 1992, it occupies a considerable share in China's large and medium cities. It took 5 years to get the first and market share of tea sales first and market share in China's 100 commercial city series investigation. The main teabag products are black tea, green tea, jasmine tea and so on.
according to our correspondent, Lipton black tea is imported from Kenya, Sri Lanka, Britain is a matching center, and it is bagged in China, and the products are sold to all over the world. However, the raw materials of bag green tea sold in China basically belong to local procurement. Besides selling in China, they are also sold to Hongkong, Southeast Asia and other places.
Southern Anhui is one of the main sources of tea for Unilever. "Lipton green tea raw materials are mainly from the mountain area of Mount Huangshan. In addition, Sichuan is also one of the raw materials for Lipton." Ceng Xiwen told this reporter.
since 2002, Unilever has invested 50 million US dollars to build Hefei Industrial Park, and regard it as an important tea production base. Qiao Anlu, President of Unilever North Asia (Alan Jope) recently said that Hefei should be the largest production base in Unilever.
just before our reporter visited the production base, the production line of tea bags was in the stage of rest. Ceng Xiwen said that it is now in the acquisition of new tea period, coupled with equipment reintegration, so it has not yet started.
"secret" tea bag "secret"
industry personage revealed that the tea industry profit is higher than the average industry profit 50%-150%, also it is therefore, in full of Mount Huangshan Mao Feng, Taiping monkey Kui, Qimen black tea, Lu'an melon slices and other famous Huizhou merchants.
tea industry experts told the reporter that the case of tea bag with tea in summer and autumn is not uncommon in the industry. On the one hand, it can compress the cost of raw materials, on the other hand, to gain more profits by raising prices.
Shandong Rizhao is famous for full Rizhao Green tea, the reporter learned from local tea farmers that the purchase price of spring tea this year is about 100 yuan per kilogram, but summer tea is much cheaper, probably only half the price of spring tea. "Every summer tea comes into the market, and many tea traders come to buy at low prices and sell tea bags to the south."
the above people pointed out that the tea bag also has a grade difference, the high grade is made of medium tea, and the difference is made directly from the coarse leaves or the old tea.
"there is no tea bag to do with tea, it is usually done by tea and careless leaves in the next year, because it is hard to make powder to see the ingredients, only from the colour and lustre of the bubble can be divided into good and bad." The tea farmer told the reporter.
Mr. Wang, who has been engaged in the export business of tea processing for several decades in Mount Huangshan, told the reporter that the cost is too high even if the tea is collected. Most of the tea bags are made of tea foam from the tea market. The tea foamy is only a few dollars a Jin, which is extremely low, many big brands both at home and abroad. Tea foam is used to process tea bags.
in addition, coarse tea and old tea have other places besides processing tea bags.
the interior marketing staff of the Hufu tea line told the reporter that Chen Charuo could not sell in a timely manner and would be sold to other places such as tea flavored pastries or tea drinks by the manufacturer. Like tea bags, many of them are used, so the purchase price will be much lower.