Fuding white tea defies the trend with soaring exports, unlocking new growth opportunities for the tea industry.

　　During the 16th China International Investment Fair and the 2012 China International Tea Industry Investment Exhibition, 14 leading tea companies from Fuding City—including Pinpinxiang, Guangfu, Yurongxiang, Wuyao, Sanshanyuan, Luye, Tianhu, and others—joined forces to showcase their products. Against the backdrop of declining national tea exports, these companies stood out remarkably, securing foreign trade orders worth a total of 60 million yuan, setting a new record for white tea-related exhibition bookings.

　　Behind this lies a valuable lesson for our province's tea exporters, which are struggling to break free from low-price competition and currently rely heavily on lower-grade and raw-material teas—specifically, how building strong private brands and accelerating the R&D and production of deeply processed teas can help boost added value.

　　Old White Tea Unearths New Markets

　　On September 11, in Hall 3 of the Xiamen International Convention & Exhibition Center, within the Fuding White Tea exhibition area, the delicate aroma of white tea filled the air, filling everyone with delight. Philip De, a foreign trade businessman from the United States, was engaged in an intense negotiation with Lin Xingbiao, General Manager of Fujian Guangfu Tea Industry Company.

　　This marks the sixth time this year that the American businessman has tirelessly negotiated with Fuding tea merchants—and this time, the U.S. buyer has decided to finalize this year’s order for aged white tea with this particular company. Meanwhile, at the table next to them, a young British buyer is enthusiastically chatting with a few colleagues, savoring freshly brewed white tea sweetened with xylitol.

　　Witnessing the scene, Lin Lizhi, president of the Fuding City Tea Association, couldn’t hide his smile: "Fuding is now the world's largest export base for white tea."

　　According to customs statistics, in the first six months of 2012, China's tea exports fell by 6.08% year-on-year. During the same period, Fujian Province exported 11,000 tons of tea, a decrease of 18.6% compared to the previous year. The average export price was $4,148.9 per ton, down 6.2% from the previous year.

　　Against the backdrop of slowing global economic growth and a setback in China's overall tea exports, Fuding white tea has bucked the trend, seeing exports surge instead. As of the end of August this year, 381 tea companies in Fuding reported a 77% year-on-year increase in white tea sales revenue for the first half of the year. Meanwhile, white tea exports have already reached 2,600 tons—surpassing last year's full-year export volume of approximately 3,000 tons.

　　Lin Lici told reporters that Fuding white tea has now become a supplier of white tea to international giants such as Starbucks, Coca-Cola, Amway, Estée Lauder, and Japan’s Yubari Mibun Sugar, with products being widely exported to key markets in North America and European countries.

　　Clever eyes recognize the old industry.

　　Thanks to its rapid rise in sales, white tea has quickly become a new leading player in the global tea market—but what exactly lies behind this remarkable success?

　　"At a time when most businesses were facing export crises, we chose to break through against the odds." In 2003, Lin Xingbiao, who had spent two decades in the Pu'er tea industry, decided to return to his hometown—Hulin Village, Tanxi Town, Fuding City—and pivot into the Fuding white tea market. He took over a 300-mu white tea plantation in his hometown and later established a cooperative that now oversees an impressive 3,000-mu tea garden. After three years of dedicated effort, although his Guangfulin-branded white tea has already become a competitive player alongside many long-established tea companies, the company’s annual output value still stands at just over 30 million yuan.

　　Financial innovation, coupled with venture capital funding to acquire a state-owned tea factory, marks Guangfu Tea Industry's first—and most significant—step into the white tea sector.

　　Back when Lin Xingbiao first returned to his hometown to establish Guangfu Tea Industry, he already sensed the promising business potential hidden within white tea during a visit to the processing facility of the Fuding White Tea Hulin State-Owned Factory. Originally established in the 1960s as a wholly state-owned enterprise, Hulin State-Owned Factory was once Fuding’s largest single entity dedicated to both white tea cultivation and processing. It boasted China’s largest state-managed tea garden, spanning over 10,000 mu, and served as a trusted supplier of premium white tea—used as an essential ingredient by time-honored Chinese brands like Tongrentang.

　　After three years of careful assessment and negotiations led by Lin Xingbiao, Guangdong Guangfu Investment Management Co., Ltd. invested 30 million yuan into Fuding Guangfu Tea Industry Co., Ltd. in March 2008. The company then acquired 120 mu of land in the Guanyang Tea Processing Cluster Area of Diandou Town to build a standardized workshop for white tea production, along with an advanced R&D center. Lin Xingbiao told reporters that while agricultural investments don’t always yield immediate results, white tea—a deeply processed variety within the broader tea industry—boasts not only high product added value but also enjoys strong demand in international markets. As such, the white tea sector is poised for tremendous growth and development in the future.

　　"Drinking tea" becomes "eating tea."

　　"British Lipton tea earns consumers' trust precisely because it addresses the issue at the very source of the product." Inspired by Lipton, Lin Xingbiao resolved to take control of tea quality—from the very beginning.

　　Fuding City is one of only four national pilot units selected as demonstration zones for building a nationwide traceability system for agricultural product quality in China—specifically, the only one located in Fujian Province. Currently, there are just four such pilot sites across the country (the other three being Fangshan District in Beijing, Anji County in Zhejiang, and the Shaanxi Provincial High-Quality Agricultural Products Center). Under this traceability system, every package of tea produced will be equipped with a unique traceability code—essentially acting as an "ID card" for each product. Lin Xingbiao told reporters that China's tea industry currently relies heavily on small-scale, individual farmer-based cultivation and management, leading to widespread overuse of pesticides and chemical fertilizers. As a result, product quality often fails to meet consumers' growing demands for food safety and hygiene. However, for exported teas, which face even stricter quality standards, Guangfu Tea Industry’s next strategic move is to break through these challenges by adopting intensive farming practices and centralized processing, ultimately achieving true end-to-end, full-chain operations.

　　Building a proprietary brand is Guangfu Tea Industry’s third strategic move to break through its transformation and upgrade. Lin Xingbiao told reporters that white tea, as a premium tea product, has extremely high quality standards—and consequently, relatively higher added value. The average price of ordinary bulk white tea currently sits between 300 and 500 yuan per kilogram, yielding an average income of just over 6,000 yuan per mu of land. In contrast, when refined into high-end processed products, white tea can fetch export prices ranging from approximately 1,000 to 3,000 yuan per kilogram. As a result, the highest possible income per mu now climbs to around 20,000 to 30,000 yuan. Moreover, compared to two years ago, not only have white tea export prices more than tripled, but its gross profit margin has also surged by nearly 60%.

　　In early May of this year, the GABA white tea capsules developed by Yurongxiang Tea Company were approved by an expert panel in Fuzhou and are now being submitted to the provincial health department for registration and approval. This innovative product was created by Yurongxiang Company, which combined γ-aminobutyric acid tea—originally introduced from the Tea Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences—with its own unique white tea processing techniques. By early next year, Yurongxiang Tea Company plans to launch a new line of conveniently packaged, easy-tear white tea capsules tailored to Chinese consumers' diverse taste preferences. Lin Lici told reporters that a series of white tea-based beverages and food products—including "Cordyceps White Tea," "Qingye White Tea," "White Tea Xylitol," and "White Tea Tooth-Care Tablets"—are already making waves in the market. With these exciting innovations, it’s clear that Fuding white tea is poised to enter a new era as a high-value, high-margin industry.