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China tea

output falls

BEIJING: Tea production in China was 502,000 tonnes in 1995, a five percent fall from 1994's output of 527,100 tonnes, the Economic Information Daily said on Friday.

The fall was caused by over-supply on the international tea market and the lack of any agency to regulate the tea industry, the newspaper quoted a Chinese tea association official as saying.

Sharp declines in production and exports since 1993 had caused more than 80 percent of tea processors to lose money, it said.

Gross revenues rose by 60 percent from 1987 to 1995, but primary production costs rose 214 percent during the same period, it said.

Adding to the tea industry's woes were a 23 percent agricultural special product tax and a 17 percent value-added tax that made tea almost as heavily taxed as liquor and tobacco, it said.

China's 80 million tea farmers produce 80 to 90 percent of the tea on the world green tea market, the newspaper said.

China exported 166,000 tonnes of tea in 1995, earning $280 million, it said.-Reuter