Fujian Province's Anxi County alone (the most famous of China's tea producing areas) has thousands of tea tradesmen all around the country. With big companies from the famous tea areas of Eastern China in such a strong position in the tea market, what can small, developing tea producers do?
One of the most important issues at hand is actually what kind of tea is produced and sold. Green tea, Oolong Tea, and other famous Chinese teas are the main fare in China and the greater East Asian region. Rural areas would have to fight hard to even try to compete in those markets, but likely could find more room for development if they invested time and effort in global markets.
As things are, rural tea producers sell to the strong, Eastern China companies who control the vast majority of the tea market. Though development in rural production and distribution could bring about some improvement for rural producers, the avenues of development are quite limited.
Rural companies trying to sell a Chinese tea in a Chinese market will only lead back to rural producers selling to the big East China companies or at best, fighting for a miniscule market share in an already developed market. Any development for rural tea producers involves something outside of that context.
Selling tea to foreign companies is the best possibility. If rural producers can sell cheaper, that will obviously be a draw for foreign companies, and cutting out the middle men will do exactly that. The big question that brings up is what kind of tea foreign companies need. Where can these rural companies break out of the dominated domestic tea market?
