Guest Contribution by Max Chiang
Senior International Marketing Manager | Int’l Dept | HJC Group

Continued from Survey of Chinese Tea Industry by HJC – Part 1

Tea Businesses Move Forward

1. Put epidemic prevention and worker health first while everything revives

It is reported that on February 13, Menghai Tea Factory (勐海茶厂) resumed production. From the day of the resumption of work, the factory has been enforcing strict disinfection and staff management.

The office area, factory area, and other public areas are sterilized every day. All areas are equipped with hand sanitizer. The factory set up a waste mask collection point managed by special personnel. There are six health testing points in the factory and all workers must frequently take a temperature check, disinfect their hands, and must wear masks correctly.

For the epidemic prevention in stores after the resumption of sales, all tea shops must require employees to follow these rules:

When serving customers:

  • Try to keep a safe distance of more than 1 meter to minimize risk
  • Ensure daily disinfection of work space
  • Increase the frequency of sanitation in the store throughout the day
  • Ensure correct cleaning and disinfection of tea sets and equipment


Menghai factory wearing the proper masks

When employees are on duty, they must wear masks, check their body temperature, and wash and disinfect their hands frequently.

2. Develop a new online live broadcast marketing model

COVID reduces the opportunity for “face-to-face” marketing, but accelerates the transformation of the traditional tea industry into a live online marketing model. In the era of 5G and rapid consumption of virtual content, the online broadcast platform has become a new marketing option for tea enterprises and tea merchants.


A screen capture from the online sale

One example is direct online sales. It is reported that the second limited tea cake of New Year from Shuangchen Pu’er (双陈普洱), had been released online in the form of live broadcast. The broadcast was widely viewed by tea lovers all over the country, and nearly 9,000 fans of Shuangchen Pu’er witnessed the online debut. The fermented ones were sold out in just 12 minutes and the raw ones were sold out in 15 minutes.

3. Launch online public service teaching

The stagnation of business gives enterprises and tea people opportunities to learn and innovate. A series of public-welfare-themed live broadcast courses have been launched. Experts and managers from relevant fields are providing ideas for tea enterprises and tea merchants to solve the dilemmas of the tea industry.

Images provided by author