Tea production and trade
China is the world’s largest tea producer, exporter, and consumer. In 2022, China produced 3.35 million metric tons of tea, accounting for nearly the half of the global tea production. Approximately three-fifths of China’s tea production was green tea, a tea made from unoxidized leaves. On the other hand, tea plantation acreage in China has been consistently growing, with the most prolific tea-cultivation areas lying around and south of the Yangtze River valley in Guizhou, Yunnan, Sichuan, and Hubei provinces.When it comes to international trade, China exported nearly 2.3 billion U.S. dollars of tea in 2021, about 900 million dollars more than Sri Lanka, which ranked second place. Green tea accounts for the largest proportion of China’s total tea exports. Though Hong Kong is China’s largest tea exporting destination in terms of trade value, the largest amount of tea exports from China went to Morocco, Uzbekistan, and some West African countries. When it comes to imports, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and India are China’s most crucial tea import partners, and black tea makes up the absolute majority of tea imported to China.