The Review And Prospective Of Korean Tea Industry

For a long time, there are lots of cultural, historical and economical communication between China and Korea. The social connection between the two countries might be backed to about 3000 years ago. China is the original country for tea production and now has had a long history from its beginning. With the spread of Chinese tea culture to Korea, many Koreans gradually liked drinking tea, and now it becomes one of the cultures in Korea. However, as everyone knows, in the 20th century, there was a break of connection between the two countries. As a result, the exchange of the tea culture and economy was also stopped, which was not resumed until 1992 when China implemented the Open-Door Policy. With the resumption of economical relation, the exchanges of economy and culture grew rapidly, and meanwhile, the consumption of tea in Korea increased significantly. At present, China ranks the first for Korea in terms of business exchange. The two countries are keeping a good relationship in many areas, including economical and culture exchanges.Based on its history, this paper presents an overview of Korean tea industry and some potential problems, which might face the development of Korean tea industry in the recent future, are eminently pointed out. Comparisons between the two countries are made in some aspects of tea industry, which could help to learn Chinese experience and find out a feasible way for the prospective development of Korean tea industry.This thesis contains five major parts. The first part, i.e. the Chapter two, traces back to the origin of tea plantation in Korea, and describes the development of Korean tea industry before the twenties century.Regarding to the origin of tea plantation in Korea, there are three theories. One is the "Natural Growth Theory", which said that there was natural tea tree originally planted in Korea. The second is the "tea from south theory". It described that when Hoe Huang-Ok was married to the emperor of Gaya dynasty, named Kim Su-Lo, she brought tea seed from the South area. The last, i.e. the "tea from China theory", said that it an ambassador of Shinla dynasty (the emperor of Heng Duk), named Kim Dae Lyum, brought tea seed from China.The second part of this research analyses the history of development in the 20th century. At the beginning of the 20th century, Korean tea industry started to develop, and during the period of Japanese invasion, the tea was drunk as a kind of healthy food in Korea. The latest 20th century was prosperous times for Korean tea culture and the tea consumption grew largely.The third part of the research focuses on the present status of Korean tea industry along with its problems, covering tea import, tea plantation and national consumption. Due to the worldwide trend of trade liberalization, the high tariff of tea import keeps Korea facing a lot of problems. It's necessary for Korea to reduce the rate of customs and create a large demanding market. Those are certainly important for trade between China and Korea. Therefore, in the recent, Korea has to change their protection system of custom to meet the changing situation.The chapter five, the fourth part in this paper, is mainly on comparison of tea industry between Korea and China, which is also one of the most important parts in this thesis. The comparison covers lots of aspects related the tea industry of the two countries, such as the capital and labor productivity, and the tendency of tea consumption for the two markets.As conclusion, the last part makes a lot of discussion regarding the prospective of Korean tea industry and further presents some strategies for promoting its r development.