Moutai County, known as the “Hometown of Famous Chinese Teas,” Shiqian County, the “Hometown of Chinese Moss Tea,” Puan County, the “Hometown of Ancient Chinese Tea Trees,” Fenggang County, the “Hometown of Rich Zinc and Selenium Organic Tea in China,” and Duyun City, the “Capital of Chinese Maojian Tea”… These tea towns and capitals scattered across Guizhou Province bear witness to Guizhou's long history of tea production. During the Spring Tea picking season, the mountains of Wumeng, Wuling, Leigong, Moon, and Dalou are bustling with tea farmers and filled with the fragrance of tea. For many consecutive years, Guizhou's tea garden area has exceeded 6 million mu, placing it consistently among the top tier of China's tea industry.

The Economic Reference News reporter conducted in-depth research among tea farmers, tea enterprises, tea management departments, and tea research institutions and found that although the Guizhou tea industry has achieved scale and size, it still falls short of the goal of achieving brand recognition and ascending to a higher level. The transition from a “major tea province” to a “strong tea province” requires overcoming significant obstacles. Urgent efforts are needed to enhance brand benefits and market share.

Workers drying green tea at a processing facility of a Guizhou tea company. (File Photo)

Varieties Abound But Brands Lack Recognition

“There are many selling tea, but few buying it. Although Guizhou's tea quality is excellent, many people in the market are unaware of local brands, leading to limited actual sales.” After participating in a tea industry expo, a white tea enterprise leader in Guizhou expressed concern about the development of the provincial tea industry.

According to official statistics, there are currently around 5,700 tea enterprises (cooperatives) in Guizhou Province, including 12 national-level leading enterprises (second highest in the country), 230 provincial-level leading enterprises, and 179 enterprises above designated size. Some of these are well-known both domestically and internationally, and Guizhou has also cultivated a number of industrial consortia, with the tea industry operating entities continuing to grow. Currently, over 2,200 trademarks have been registered for the Guizhou tea industry.

Our research reveals that Guizhou's teas come in a wide variety, such as Zunyi Red, Puan Red, Meitan Emerald Bud, Leigong Mountain Silver Ball Tea… In recent years, Guizhou has proposed the creation of five major industrial belts: famous high-quality green tea in central Guizhou, high-quality green tea and Matcha in eastern Guizhou, green and black tea in northern Guizhou, high-altitude organic green tea in northwestern Guizhou, and ancient tree tea and early tea in southwestern Guizhou.

“The variety is overwhelming, but when promoting them, one feels lacking in confidence due to the lack of prominent brands.” A tea industry veteran with over 20 years of experience said that one of the key points summarizing the current state of the Guizhou tea industry, which is ‘large but not strong,' is the abundance of varieties and the lack of brand recognition.

Data from the Chinese Tea Circulation Association shows that in 2025, 226 enterprises had a “brand strength” score of over 500 for products such as green tea, Oolong tea, black tea, dark tea, white tea, yellow tea, Pu'er tea, flower tea, and Herbal tea. Among these, 13 tea enterprises had five or more tea products with a “brand strength” score of over 500, none of which were from Guizhou.

Several tea enterprise leaders believe that Guizhou's tea enterprises primarily operate in a family-style workshop or cooperative model. While they appear large in scale, they have not formed a scale effect. Operating independently makes it difficult to create influential brands. Taking the regional public brand of a major tea-producing county in western Guizhou as an example, although there are approximately 200 tea-related market entities in the county, only about one-tenth are authorized to use this brand. This results in difficulty in forming a scale effect, low brand recognition, and a small market share, failing to fully leverage the brand value.

Guizhou Shiqian Moss Tea artisan Wang Fei and others believe that on the one hand, enterprises should be encouraged to create their own brands, while on the other hand, there should be a strong push for the integration of primary regional public brands. Only by truly forming large-scale, recognizable label brands can the powerful brand effect attract enterprises and products to aggregate.

Villagers picking spring tea at a tea garden in Machai Village, Longquan Town, Danzhai County, Guizhou Province. (File Photo)

High-Quality But Low Output and Value

Guizhou is a tea region with high altitude, low latitude, scarce sunlight, and abundant mist, making it an ideal location for growing and producing tea. It is recognized by the industry as a significant origin of high-quality green tea. Moutai County, which has repeatedly topped the list of China's top 100 tea counties and is located at 27 degrees north latitude, shares the world's three golden tea-growing belts with Darjeeling in India and Wuyi Mountain in Fujian.

“Including Moutai tea, the teas from several major tea-producing areas in Guizhou have excellent quality, many of which can be considered high-end teas.” A chairman of a Guizhou tea company told reporters. However, affected by factors such as management, picking, and processing, Guizhou's teas generally suffer from low output and value, preventing the high quality from translating into high value.

A researcher investigating the tea industry found that the average per-mu output of Guizhou tea is about 53 kilograms per mu, with an average price of 135 yuan per kilogram, both lower than the national average.

During in-depth research at tea enterprises, we discovered that due to the predominantly high altitude and mountainous terrain in Guizhou, mechanization is almost non-existent in planting, picking, and management of tea, with the vast majority of work being done manually, resulting in low production efficiency. Every spring tea picking season, the owner of a tea company in Anshun City recruits tea pickers from Sichuan and other places. For over a month, hundreds of workers are present in the tea garden every day, with large numbers requiring accommodation and meals. The head of this enterprise told reporters that with annual revenues of over 10 million yuan, labor costs alone amount to several million yuan.

In Guizhou, the tea industry entities are relatively scattered, making it difficult to implement efficient, scaled, and intensive production. Several tea enterprise leaders admitted that a large amount of labor is invested in tea gardens every year, but with the aging of the rural population and the outflow of young labor, as well as rising labor costs, the problem will become increasingly prominent.

“Now prices are not going up, and there is some overcapacity. The pre-Ming tea produced by our company is of very good quality, but the unit price for free shipping is now less than 200 yuan per catty.” The chairman of a Guizhou tea company candidly stated that “profits are too thin.” Selling is necessary, as quality cannot be preserved otherwise, and the longer one waits, the lower the price becomes.

Strong Front-End but Weak Back-End

Our research found that during the development of the tea industry, Guizhou places great emphasis on planting and management, but still needs to bridge the “last mile” towards the market in terms of marketing and brand image building.

“I once came across a great white tea company with a large scale and excellent quality, but unfortunately, the owner mainly sold tea through social media posts.” A person from a tea management department said that later, he followed professional advice and established a dedicated marketing team, and now sales are not a concern.

Building a brand image is also an urgent issue for the Guizhou tea industry. During an interview with a tea enterprise, we heard a real-life example: To save costs, the owner used ordinary paper for product packaging, simply writing the name of the tea, his name, and contact information on it. Despite such a rudimentary package, the tea was