Small tea farmers in China

different people different fate. some very good business small farmers, some bankrupt. in yunnan too many big companies controlling prices. more difficult for small farmers and companies. many small farms in other provinces very good improvement.

@Ctran, this is a most admirable ambition. It is not an easy one to achieve though. I have been buying from smaller producers since the beginning of my tea career and there are many aspects that need great efforts in, unless you do not mind bad quality hurting your name, or losing money to various bad practices by the very people whom you want to support.

@Chawang you are definitely hitting the core of the issue: differences in the people. 

Most often people easily collectively think of smaller farmers are one kind of suppliers. They are not. They are as varied as personalities, i.e. there are honest, skilled, and good practice people of various backgrounds and limitations, there are also opportunists, shady people some of whom can pretend very well to be, say, high quality traditional tea producers. Whichever group one may belong to, he can be successful, mediocre or a complete failure. Not any different from any other trade in your part of the world, or mine.

In order to contribute to the promotion of small, independent farms, there are a few things that I do and, so far, they have worked for my business:

• Find real quality, consistent producers
• Find at least two for each type of tea you’ll carry
• Establish a personal relationship with them, ie, do care for them as individuals. It is love to other people that you do such business afterall, right?
• Understand that they have great limitations as normal suppliers, and which are they in terms of possibilities of limitation and hinderance of your own business operations
• Devise ways that you can do to compensate for these limitations. If such devise is not possible with any particular one potential, don’t commence working with him yet.
• Understand the quality and market price of similar products available through larger producers. Weight the difference in the small farm and quality marketing pretext

These are the parts concerning the supply side. Operation, marketing, management, and business strategies are other things you’ll have to be good at in trying to gain a foothold in the competitive tea trade. 

And then there is the basic necessity of knowing your products. This not only for selling, but in day one when you approach potential suppliers. They are human afterall — they have all the weaknesses of any human and can easily fall for temptations of cheating, despise, and most often, lost of faith.

I began by visiting a number of farms and producers in Phoenix. If you do not have connections to begin with, visiting tea markets can give you some exposures to pricing, qualities and variety ranges. It would take luck, persistence, vigilance, and a lot of wit to decipher what really goes on — coz a lot of those in those “wholesale” markets are basically merchants of different backgrounds, and a lot claim to be farmers themselves. The bottom line is, those who could make it to setting up a shop in the tea market are not those in the most need for support. Quite importantly, the quality that is carried in these markets aiming at the mass market may not

…aiming at the mass market may not be the quality you want to achieve. Having said that though, that is not to say there are not good people there, however rare they are.

There are small independent farmers in other parts of the world who practice quality, traditional processes, and they do not have tea markets like those in China. They need promotion, like this one in Leo’s article: https://www.teaguardian.com/tea-selection-guide/ceylon-uva-hand-rolled-orthodox.html#.UoGIV5HVof8

…coz a lot of those in those “wholesale” markets are basically merchants of different backgrounds, and a lot claim to be farmers themselves…

@Ctran, fresh college grads are too green to do anything, esp in China where ppl are not taught independent thinking in education. They are good to follow simple orders only. Ppl who are serious enough to go to grad school in tea are either very focus in specific area or too well connected to be faithful to you, more so when you are working with them remotely. There are also those who are not too honest. I don’t blame them though; in a society where corruption prevails and money and power are justice, morality is but a hermit. In another word, it’s not easy to find a good partner or employee. Like Manila, I paid my dues too.

@Hokusai, teas of Chinese origin are much easier to begin with than many others because of a lot of reasons. In the instance of Sri Lanka, the country has been too famous for good mass market tea and it is a very steep curve for the market to learn to pay good money for their alternative qualities. It’ll take consistent and enduring commitment on the side of the producer and on the seller to make true independent quality Sri Lankan teas, such as the Gongfu Green I am promoting, to make meaningful change of perception in the market.

Didnt think of that. Your work now seems a lot more complex than I thought before.

Indeed a lot of tea farmers because of the cost, sales of the problem to give up the tea industry, and now a lot of tea are using machine baking, taste and hand baking slightly different, but there are still some farmers in the insistence, China Anxi is rich in tea, The taste of the new tea is great