Hu Jicheng is interviewed for the “2017 Xinhuanet Special Interview”. [Photo/xinhuanet.com]

Tea companies in China need to standardize their industrial processes if they expect to expand their presence in the international market, according to Hu Jicheng, member of the Guizhou Agriculture Committee and executive deputy director of the Guizhou Tea Office.

The combined annual gross output of Chinese tea companies stands at 30 billion yuan ($4.3), which barely beats Lipton, a famous UK-based tea brand owned by Unilever.

“The key for Lipton’s dominance lies on its standardization and clear division of labor, which sets a good example for its Chinese counterparts,” said Hu. “One of the biggest problems in the domestic tea industry is that it has a long industrial chain, yet an unclear division of labor across tea plantations, production and sales.” The premise of a standardized tea industry is large raw material bases. Guizhou province, as China’s largest tea plantation base, should seize the golden opportunities presented through the transformation and upgrading of the industry, he added.

“We’ve got more than 4,000 tea companies in Guizhou. Some of the biggest ones can focus on refining and blending tea, while the rest can focus on rough production at the initial stage,” Hu said.

Guizhou province has become the largest tea cultivation base in China today. A total of nearly five thousand square kilometers of tea plantations in Guizhou province play a decisive role in its provincial economy.

Hu Jicheng advocates standardization of the Chinese tea industry during the “2017 Xinhuanet Special Interview”. [Photo/news.cn]