GUEST EDITORIAL

Abstract

China is the largest tea-producing country in the world. It is the first country in the world that discovered and used tea plants. According to the historical records, as early as in Chinese Han Dynasty (59 BC), there was a writing record about tea marketing. Since the founding of new China, tea production has developed quickly. In 1950, China only had 169,500 hectares of tea gardens but upto the year of 2011, the tea-producing acreage increased to about 2.21 million hectares, 12 times larger than that in 1950. The tea production in 2011 was aroimd 15,50,000 tons, 23.9 times higher than that in 1950. The tea export also increased continuously in the past 60 years. The total tea exports were 343,000 tons in 2011.