Tea rare earth content exceeding foreign giants in China difficult to purchase

Because the content of rare earth in tea leaves exceeds the standard, and there is no such standard in foreign countries, it will cause doubts for foreign purchases in China.

Su Zhijie, general manager of United Food Group in Greater China, recently said in an interview with reporters that due to problems such as excessive pesticide residues and lack of traceability systems, the company purchased less than its global purchase volume last year in China, the world's largest green tea producer. 20% of the purchase price and the high procurement cost led to less than 1% of the profits of the Chuaning tea company in China, which has more than 300 years of history. In addition, the limited amount of rare earth is a standard set by China, but Chinese tea companies cannot do it.

The lack of integration of pesticide residue testing standards and international standards has hindered multinational corporations from undertaking large-scale procurement in China, and has also constrained the transformation of Chinese export tea from bulk low-end raw tea to high-end. This is also an important reason why China's tea exports decreased by 2.82% last year.

Only China has a rare earth limit standard

At the end of July, the Jiangsu Provincial Bureau of Quality Supervision announced the results of the provincial supervision and spot checks of product quality in the second quarter of this year. The tea rare earth oxides (total rare earth oxides) project of seven tea companies was unqualified. In October 2005, China abolished the GB9676 “Tea Health Standards” and the tea hygiene standards were incorporated into the GB2762-2005 “Contaminants in Food Limits” management area. According to GB2762-2005 "Contaminants in Food Limits," the value of rare earth content is 2mg/kg, which means that the rare earth content in tea should not exceed two parts per million.

The standards for rare earths are somewhat strange to foreigners, because this standard is only available in China. The European Union, Japan, the United States, and other major tea producing countries do not have this standard. However, they attach great importance to this issue.

"China's standard, but their own tea companies can not do it." Su Zhijie said that he initially heard that tea contains rare earth, do not understand what is going on, and later found that this is naturally produced in the process of tea cultivation in China of.

The standard issue has also become a bottleneck for the export of Chinese tea enterprises.

In 2012, China produced approximately 1.75 million tons of tea and exported 310,000 tons, a year-on-year decrease of 2.82%. According to the analysis of the China Chamber of Commerce for the Import and Export of Food and Natural Products, the number of teas exported to the European Union and Japan has decreased year by year due to the detection of pesticide residues. In 2012, China exported 40863.8 tons of tea to the European Union, a decrease of 5.2% year-on-year; the amount of tea exported to Japan was 17319.9 tons, a decrease of 4.3% year-on-year.

With regard to the issue of limiting the amount of rare earth, more than one person in charge of tea enterprises told the reporter of the “Daily Economic News” that drinking tea is not eating tea residue. The rare earth content in tea refers to the fact that the tea residue contains rare earths and is not a rare earth in tea soup. .

Previously, according to the joint research conducted by the Hangzhou Tea Research Institute and the National Tea Quality Supervision and Inspection Center of China National Supply and Marketing Cooperatives, the leaching rate of rare earth elements in the tea brewing process showed that through brewing, the rare earth elements in tea (based on the total amount of oxides The total leaching rate was less than 20%. According to the reference value of the International Alzheimer's Association (ADI), the current level of rare-earth tea was not enough to cause dietary safety problems during the brewing process.

"This standard is too strict." A person in charge of an unnamed tea company said that the background value of rare earth in tea is 0.23~1.76mg/kg, but the standard is set at 2mg/kg, it is too harsh.

At present, the limited standard of rare earth in tea is still in dispute. Because foreign countries do not have relevant standards, multinational companies are unable to rush to purchase large quantities of Chinese tea.

Loss of traceability system drives up costs

In addition, because of the lack of traceability systems, it has made it difficult for multinational companies to purchase tea in China.

Su Zhijie said that they have come to China for procurement for 15 years. Last year, the amount of global purchases was 200 million pounds. The amount of purchases in China is not large, which is about 20% of global procurement, mainly green tea. Others mainly purchase from Sri Lanka, India and African countries.

"Traders don't know more about their family's information." Su Zhijie said that this is also a major challenge for China's tea exports. Some foreign manufacturers require tea traceability, exporters need to provide this information, and can stand the verification.

There are six people in the global procurement team of the Associated Press Chuan Ning Tea, and the buyer in the Chinese region is Nick. Nick will ask tea traders, from which merchants these teas were bought. Usually at this stage, traders can't answer, let alone how they fertilize and remove insects.

ABF food had to bypass traders and directly find larger tea bases and farmers. “The tea-related test data from tea-producing bases are all very clear.” Su Zhijie said that in the past three years, the procurement channels of Twinings tea have changed from China. The former traders accounted for 100%, and now it has decreased to 60%; the next 3 In the year, the United Kingdom Foods will completely bypass traders and purchase from bases.

"This kind of cost is very high, almost one-on-one purchases." Su Zhijie said that traders buy from tea farmers in batches, usually from a number of farmers, and do not sell.

At present, there are not many Chinese tea industry bases that meet the requirements of the British Union's food procurement, mainly in Yunnan, Zhejiang, and Anhui. “And these bases need to pass the EU certification. All processes have costs.” Su Zhijie said that the local government has little interest in helping tea industry bases to establish traceability systems and data records. They are more concerned about how much foreign investment companies can invest in local production. Money, how much local tea is purchased.