The Tea Market In Guangzhou

 

The tea market in Guangzhou.  

Located in Fangchun, this tea market is the largest Chinese tea wholesale market.  You are simply spoilt for choice when you are looking for Chinese tea and tea ware there.  I had visited Fangchun many times for the past 10 years. Here are my recent observations from my recent trip.

The 'flavour of the month" is Chen Pi or dried orange peels. There were many new tea shops selling these peels, new and old.  There is no depth in the Chen Pi, say compared to pu erh or oolong where one can choose the pu erh region or even the roast levels of oolong tea. I foresee that these Chen Pi shops will slowly dwindle down significantly In the next 2 years. 

The world economy has slowed down. Physical and trade wars around the world had affected Chinese tea sales.  One must remember that drinking good Chinese tea is a luxury rather than a necessity.  There was a Chinese tea ponzi scheme that happened in Fangchun, China a few years ago. Many investors and some tea dealers were attracted by promises of handsome returns. 'Fang cha' tea had very fancy packaging as well. When the Ponzi scheme collapsed, many of these investors lost all their investments.  All these factors did not bode well for Chinese tea. My tea dealer friends are now predicting a lower 10-20% reduction in new Chinese tea prices.  Wholesale tea dealers now are selling tea online to the retail markets. I noticed many light box set up in many tea shops there, where these dealers would take pictures of their tea and market them online.  I was told such sales had helped mitigate the downturn of the Chinese tea market.

I was told that many pu erh and oolong tea producers are also cutting back on the tea production these few years.  There are no longer tea investors or speculators that buy tea by the cartons and were hoping to make a quick buck.

Pix shows a new Douji pu erh as well as a Douji ginger pu erh tea sachet pack. The Gan pu erh shown is a 12 year old teabag production and was a gift to me by me tea buddy friend there.  

I had also noticed the younger generation in China are drinking less traditional Chinese tea. They prefer the cold bubble tea or coffee at fancy cafes. It is possible that traditional Chinese tea will become a smaller market in years to come.