Research On The Development Of Tea Industry In Shaanxi Province

In history, Shaanxi Province was once the oldest tea producing area, tea cultivatingcenter and the center of tea culture dissemination. However, since the Song Dynasty, with themain center of politics, economy and culture moving eastwards, the tea growing and teaculture center moved in the same way. As a result the tea industry in Shaanxi Province cameto an end. It was in the1980s that Shaanxi resumed industrial production of tea with the helpof the government. In2009, the State Forestry Ministry issued “the national plan for teadevelopment in key areas”. In this plan, the tea producing area in southern Shaanxi wasincluded as one of the key areas along the middle and upper riches of the Yangtse River toproduce featured green tea for exportation. In the same year, Shaanxi Province published itsown development plan for the tea industry, marking the beginning of the tea industry as oneof the key parts of featured agricultural industry in Shaanxi Province. But, up to now, there isstill a big gap between the rapidly developing main body of featured agriculture industry andtea industry in Shaanxi. Viewed in the perspective of the whole province’s agricultureindustry, accelerating the tea industry development in southern Shaanxi is a oriority becausenatural conditions there are the most favorable for tea growing. By doing so, the province willbe able to keep its featured agriculture develop sustainably with competitiveness and risks insynchronized development of all branches can be avoided.The study here is based on the theories of featured agriculture, industry development,agricultural economics, human resources and marketing with relevant research results both athome and abroad as reference material. The study, in accordance with the results ofqualitative and quantitative analysis based on the verification of the existing problems in thetea industry of Shaanxi Province, on the views expressed by farmers, tea enterprise managers,consumers, and on the research into historical lessons, current status and future trends of thetea industry of this province, puts forward the idea of strategically structuring Shaanxi’s teaindustry to achieve an organic combination of tea culture and historic culture.The main content of this paper and the conclusion it reaches are as follows:(1) Steps have been taken to do the research in the fields of cultivation, processing, marketing,human resources, culture, etc. on the value chain and consumption tendency in the teaindustry of Shaanxi with the purpose of finding out ways to raise the industry’s competitiveness and maintain its sustainable development. What has been discovered is thefollowing:①The tea industry, with its long and circuitous industry chain, large amounts ofderivative products and strong driving effect can generate huge profit and create more jobs;②Featured in strong adaptability and popularity, tea consumption provides a hugeconsumer basis for the industrialization of tea production;③The research on the development mode of tea industry shows that the industrializationof agriculture is typically featured in a long and circuitous industrial chain, huge profit andpopularity. The conclusion can be of great significance to the selection and development ofthe industrialization of other agricultural projects.(2) The thorough study of and the combing through the relevant data of tea industry, teaculture and traditional culture reveals that①, historical culture has an in-depth influence ontea culture which is an important part of historical culture;②, the functional mechanism ofinteraction among tea industry, tea culture and traditional culture has been discovered.(3) It is suggested that an integrated strategy should be worked out to fuse Shaanxi’s teabrands, tea culture and historical culture together and combine the development of theprovince’s tea industry and other branches of featured agriculture by integrating themanagement of strategy, marketing and other systems with culture immersed in. To gain thisgoal, the tea industry of Shaanxi should build up its industrial strength and adopt agrowth-oriented strategy to increase its competitiveness. The concrete measures to establish agrowth-oriented strategy with historical connotation and with brand culture as its core includeselecting and cultivating top-quality seeds, using professional manure, scientific managementand effective marketing. To increase the output of tea, occupy more markets and expandmarket share, implementing strageties such as diversification, differentiation, cooperation andindustrial chain extension are recommended.