Tea is a great benefit to local farmers and village level factories, but as has been already said in "A Step Toward Rural Development," the tea industry could still be much better, providing a higher price for the farmers and local producers and a lower price for the end buyers. Locals realize the price !!discrepency, and know the middle men are making all the money, but are powerless to alter the situation.
Representatives from tea companies in the eastern, coastal provinces of China (!!notably Anhui and Jiangsu) collect tea from the rural tea producers (or village level factories) at a price between US$2 to $10 per kilogram, depending on tea quality and season. Of course, the money those eastern tea companies put into shipping and packaging is completely unknown to local tea producers, some sense of the final sticker price for the tea sold from there is generally known.
Packaging and domestic shipping in China is barely worth noting when dealing with such a high price-per-weight product. Obviously, those costs should raise the final price some, but when that final price is too far out of balance, the people grumble. According to educated guesses, the tea bought for $2 to $10 per kilogram is then sold for $20 to $100 dollars per kilogram. That is a serious profit margin!
Who receives it? Not the farmers. Not the village factories. To their credit, these tea companies are full of smart business people. They see an opportunity, and make themselves the most profit earning link in the production chain. Now, though, things are changing. The world is more connected. Rural people might find a new way to connect to the end buyer.
Now, some simple connections, a small factory to package tea, and a means of export are the only needs to connect rural tea production factories with companies who want to repackage and sell tea. Then, the rural factories can sell for more, meaning the farmers will also make more. It is entirely possible that the end buyer will pay less. "Oh, brave new world!" This is what we call "development and marketing of China's rural resources."
