Thx for posting the article. The issue is exactly one major reason why tea plucking daily wages have gone up so rapidly in recent years. This year, some regions report 150 RMB (approx $21) a day and food, boarding, and traveling provided.
The interesting thing is although the report cited an Anxi county story, the photo of the leaf gatherers is in some other region using a cutter (the tea trees are not oolong cultivars too), which traditional oolong regions do not employ. It actually raises a significant question, whether the editor of that article intends it or not: are we going to see tea production costing going the extremes — traditional hand-plucked teas becoming extremely expensive because of the rising cost of labour, while the majority of the market will be forced to cut leaf teas? Or are we already “progressing” in this direction?
