{"id":21969,"date":"2025-03-03T09:39:26","date_gmt":"2025-03-03T09:39:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/?p=21969"},"modified":"2025-03-03T09:39:27","modified_gmt":"2025-03-03T09:39:27","slug":"the-zhejiang-tea-picking-season-returns-for-a-5-month-marathon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2025\/03\/03\/the-zhejiang-tea-picking-season-returns-for-a-5-month-marathon\/","title":{"rendered":"The Zhejiang tea picking season returns for a 5-month marathon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>East China\u2019s Zhejiang tea harvest is back March 2025 as farmers around Qiandao Lake in Chun\u2019an county pick their first buds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The lake side area is a conducive plantation crop haven for it enjoys a lush forestry belt, reports&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/news.cgtn.com\/news\/2025-03-02\/Farmers-harvest-tea-in-Zhejiang-1BptkEkqP16\/p.html\"><u>CGTN<\/u><\/a>. Here, smallholder tea estates thrive undisturbed by other crops except vegetables, making its tea uniquely flavored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Zhejiang\u2019s undulating landscapes produce China\u2019s unique \u201cWest Longjing tea\u201d that echoes the rival&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2024\/03\/22\/biluochun-tea-season-arrives-in-suzhou-china\/\"><u>Sichuan\u2019s pan-fried tea<\/u><\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Multiple varieties abound, with green tea dominating the unique dark- and bright-tinted teas of the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Area specialties include the conventional black, white and yellow teas, alongside&nbsp;<em>hei&nbsp;<\/em>(dark tea) and&nbsp;<em>wulong.&nbsp;<\/em>The last two cultural types<em>&nbsp;<\/em>command<em>&nbsp;<\/em>13.7 and 10% of the harvest, respectively, with dark tea&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/insights\/prices\/china\/black-tea\/\"><u>the cheapest<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-90-is-hand-picked\"><strong>90% is Hand-picked<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The start of the current harvest marks a lengthy Zhejiang season that will last till mid-October, with most picking meticulously manual.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To fulfil this demanding manual task, small-scale farmers start the work before dawn every 2 to 3 days a week.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although machines contribute 10% of the labor input, almost all the harvest is by hand, which ensures sustainability.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-zhejiang-s-tea-museums-institutions\"><strong>Zhejiang\u2019s Tea Museums\/Institutions<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>With such a well-heeled tea culture, it is inevitable that the region should boast tea museums and institutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the latest museum showcases took place in January 2014 at the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/global.chinadaily.com.cn\/a\/202501\/14\/WS6785dc2da310f1265a1dab47_4.html\"><u>Zhejiang Provincial Museum<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;in Hangzhou.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The exhibition, entitled \u201cThe Spectacle of tea,\u201d showed visitors cultural relics that characterize the regional product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Teaching institutions include the Zhejiang University Tea Research Institute in Shaoxing and the Jinhua Mingye Tea Zixonghe Utilization Institute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both educational centers carry out scientific studies on varieties and also train on the local tea culture and etiquette.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, as an eastern province begins its 5-month tea harvest, will it help keep China top producer of tea worldwide? Time will tell, but as the statistics below show, it is almost a certainty that it just might!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-china-tea-statistics\"><strong>China Tea Statistics&nbsp;<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>China is not only one of the oldest tea civilizations but the producer of about half of the world\u2019s tea. In 2023, China\u2019s total share in global production was<a href=\"https:\/\/firsdtea.com\/2024-china-tea-report-production\/\"><u>&nbsp;50.6%<\/u><\/a>, equal to 3.3 million tonnes of processed tea. Fresh tea leaves meanwhile hit 16.013 million tonnes in 2023, from the 15.01 million tonnes of 2022, per&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/firsdtea.com\/2024-china-tea-report-production\/\"><u>FAOSTAT<\/u><\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The country commanded&nbsp;<a href=\"#data\/QCL\"><u>2,856,447 hectares<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;(ha) of tea in 2023 while in 2022 the acreage had reached 2,819,011 ha. Most of this plantation area lies in the southwest, central, eastern and Yangtze River\u2019s banks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Which are the tea provinces of China<\/strong>?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Southwest China leads national tea production, with Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan the leading provinces here. The central China region boasts another top 5 tea producer by cultivated area, namely Hubei province. Other major provinces are in the south of the Yangtze, namely Hunan and Zhejiang.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Which is the most valuable tea brand of Zhejiang<\/strong>?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWest Longjing tea,\u201d a brand name for a regional tea from near the provincial capital, Hangzhou, is quite valuable. In 2023, the province produced&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.hangzhou.com.cn\/News\/content\/2024-03\/21\/content_8704519.html\"><u>490 tonnes<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;worth 600 million yuan ($84.6 million) of this specialty type.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Which main tea varieties are there in China<\/strong>?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although there are hundreds of types by locale, there are six major varieties, namely green,&nbsp;<em>oolong (wulong)<\/em>, black, yellow, and&nbsp;<em>puerh<\/em>&nbsp;(dark). In most regions, green tea accounts for&nbsp;<a href=\"#:~:text=Tea%20harvest%20is%20usually%20done%20from%20late%20March,routine%20continues%20until%20the%20last%20day%20of%20picking.\"><u>85%<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;of varietal production, which is true of Zhejiang.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>East China\u2019s Zhejiang tea harvest is back March 2025 as farmers around Qiandao Lake in Chun\u2019an county pick their first buds. The lake side area is a conducive plantation crop haven for it enjoys a lush forestry belt, reports&nbsp;CGTN. Here, smallholder tea estates thrive undisturbed by other crops except vegetables, making its tea uniquely flavored&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":20125,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v16.3 (Yoast SEO v20.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Zhejiang tea picking season returns for a 5-month marathon - Selina Wamucii | Food &amp; Agriculture News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2025\/03\/03\/the-zhejiang-tea-picking-season-returns-for-a-5-month-marathon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Zhejiang tea picking season returns for a 5-month marathon - Selina Wamucii | Food &amp; Agriculture News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"East China\u2019s Zhejiang tea harvest is back March 2025 as farmers around Qiandao Lake in Chun\u2019an county pick their first buds. 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