Chinese tea set to branch out overseas

China aims to build a 1.5 trillion yuan ($216 billion) tea industry by 2030 under new guidelines issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and four other agencies to overhaul the sector into a modern, eco-friendly and globally competitive powerhouse.

Issued in February, the guidelines call for the upgrading of the entire tea industry chain and the cultivation of large-scale specialty tea industry clusters.

In 2025, China's tea industry topped 1 trillion yuan for the first time, according to market data.

Relying primarily on market mechanisms and existing policy tools, the guidelines set targets for 2028, aiming for steady progress in major traditional tea-producing regions and continued improvements in the quality and efficiency of distinctive local tea industries. They also call for a significant boost in industry-chain modernization, along with a broader range of products, consumption scenarios and business models.

By then, the guidelines envision cultivating more than five tea industry clusters each generating over 10 billion yuan in annual revenue, a number of leading enterprises with annual revenue exceeding 5 billion yuan, and a batch of enterprises and regional brands with international influence.

To meet these goals, the guidelines outline a series of key tasks, including strengthening science and technology innovation, nurturing market entities and advancing specialized industry clusters.

Boosting domestic consumption is a national priority, and the tea industry — with its broad consumer base, high purchase frequency and diverse consumption scenarios — is a natural driver of that effort, said an official from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's consumer goods industry department, explaining the rationale behind the guidelines.

Tea has deep roots in rural economies as well. China's tea plantations now span over 3.47 million hectares. Across more than 1,000 producing regions, the sector employs over 60 million people, making it a vital pillar for rural vitalization and farmers' income growth.

"The issuance of the guidelines marks a new stage for China's tea industry, one that prioritizes quality and brand leadership," said Wang Qing, president of the China Tea Marketing Association.

"The industry has achieved a profound transformation from scale expansion to quality enhancement. It now plays a vital and steady role in rural vitalization and common prosperity," he added.

Shi Chengyu, president of the Beijing Fuding white tea chamber of commerce, has witnessed the power of branding firsthand over the past two decades.

He said that after selling Fuding white tea in Beijing for more than two decades, his overwhelming realization was how dramatically the product's status had shifted from a tea he once dismissed to one whose soaring value now feels almost out of reach.

In the early years along Beijing's Maliandao tea street, the white tea from Fuding, a county-level city of Fujian province, commanded no market respect, Shi said. Today, the Fuding white tea regional public brand is valued at 11.84 billion yuan, ranking third nationwide. In 2025, Fuding white tea's total output value exceeded 15.5 billion yuan, providing stable income for 380,000 workers along the industrial chain, Shi said.

While Fuding tea had long been exported to markets in Europe, North America and Southeast Asia, it was virtually unknown in the home market, Shi said.

The turning point came in 2007, when the Fuding government established a tea industry development leadership group, adopting a "government builds the stage, enterprises perform and merchants execute" model to promote the Fuding white tea brand. Through high-profile campaigns such as the Beijing Olympic Tea initiative and high-speed rail advertising campaigns, Fuding white tea gradually grew in the public consciousness. By 2012, it had completed its transformation from an export-oriented raw material to a dominant player in the domestic market.

"China's vast territory and rich resources, nurtured by 5,000 years of history, have given rise to numerous distinctive regional tea industries and classic brands, forming a clear 'product-origin-brand' mapping in consumers' minds," the official from the MIIT said.

"Deepening the cultural value system and accelerating the internationalization of Chinese tea brands are of great significance."

The guidelines address this by calling for efforts to accelerate the internationalization of Chinese tea brands and support the inclusion of premium Chinese teas in mutual recognition lists of geographical indications with the European Union, Association of Southeast Asian Nations members, and other partners.

Chen Fuqiao, an associate researcher at the Tea Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said exports of Chinese new-style tea beverages, such as milk and fruit teas, benefit from a massive domestic market, mature business models and the inclusive nature of Chinese tea culture.

New-style tea beverage brands are already expanding overseas. Mixue Bingcheng has opened over 4,700 stores across 12 countries, while Heytea has established distribution centers in the United States, the United Kingdom and Malaysia.

According to the China Chain Store and Franchise Association, more than 60 Chinese new-style tea brands were operating over 6,100 outlets across Southeast Asia by the end of 2024.

The guidelines place particular emphasis on technological empowerment, explicitly calling for digital transformation across the entire production chain, the cultivation of smart factories, and the development of specialized artificial intelligence large language models for tea applications, the MIIT official said.

The push for digitalization is already taking shape. In Anhui's Qimen county, local tea companies have teamed up with universities to develop a vending-machine-style device that performs a non-invasive cardiovascular scan in 30 seconds, and then dispenses a customized tea blend tailored to the user's real-time health metrics. The project also uses 5G-powered smart production lines to handle processes from sorting fresh tea leaves all the way through to the finished brew.

Experts from the Tea Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences said that the guidelines will play a positive role in preparing tea producers for international markets with support for green processing technologies, organic and carbon-label certifications.

Lai Huiqing, chairman of Guangdong Yunding Ganpu Tea Co, believes the most promising growth frontier lies in health-focused functional tea, as the guidelines call for adapting to younger, more convenient and health-conscious consumption trends, encouraging the extension of tea ingredients into household products, cosmetics and health and pharmaceutical applications.

"Health, in particular, represents cross-industry integration. Tea naturally has health properties, but when deeply integrated with traditional Chinese medicine culture — as we do with sun-dried chenpi (aged tangerine peel) tea — it transforms into a legitimate wellness tea that offers both drinking pleasure and health benefits tailored to different populations," Lai said.

He said that health is a critical selling point in the food industry.

"From the perspective of 'medicine and food sharing the same origin', enhancing product necessity aligns with both public demand and national strategic direction. This trend is bound to take off," he said.

According to the China Chain Store and Franchise Association's new tea beverage committee and e-commerce platform Meituan's catering research institute, the domestic consumption market for new tea beverages was expected to exceed 200 billion yuan in 2025. GeoQ Data, a location intelligence platform that tracks retail and restaurant chains nationwide, reported that the number of new-style tea beverage outlets reached some 538,000 in 2025.

Industry observers said the guidelines signal a strategic shift in how China views tea. Long valued as an agricultural product, tea is increasingly being positioned as a platform for cultural promotion, technological innovation and consumption growth.

Reaching the 1.5-trillion-yuan target by 2030 will require more than higher output. It will depend on whether producers can create stronger brands, develop higher-value products and bring Chinese tea culture to a broader global audience, they added.

yangfeiyue@chinadaily.com.cn