Status and Outlook of Hubei Tea Industry

As one of the major tea-producing provinces in China, Hubei is experiencing a transitional milestone on product quality and processing efficiency for the industry. To meet the challenge, the industry needs to thoroughly analyze the inherited advantages and business foundation, then carefully weigh the risks and prospects to plan for future development. This article systematically examined the bottlenecks the industry has encountered in areas such as restricted resources, limited brand building/promotion, and confined business chain. Based on the analysis, some suggestions aiming to overcome those obstacles and nurture an extended market reach and share are proposed. They include, internally, consolidating the existing plantations, upgrading the current processing technology, and advancing the product quality, and externally, forming a program for better serving the customers, public relations, brand name, and community. The efforts would boost sales with novel and high-quality products, and at the same time, usher in the tea industry modernization in Hubei.