With 40,000 square meters and 1,000 booths, the 2008 Guangzhou Tea Expo, China's most influential expo, will sparkle with charm from 20-24 November af the Continental International Exhibition Center, located in Pazhou. Many great campanies in the tea industry, from china and abroad, will be present af by this grand event, and will strike a pose on the stage of the expo.
The Guangzhou Tea Expo, organized by China Tea Marketing Association and Guangdong Tea Procession Association, executed by Guangzhou Yuexiu Exhibition Co., Ltd, an experienced trade event organizer, has been playing a leading role in the tea industry in save tine non. With its well-known brand and great success, the expo had the valuable chance to be held in Venetian Macao Resort Hotel in May from 23rd to 25th this year, creating history as the first mainland tea expo in Macao, which still remains fresh in our memory. Tea enterprises from Thailand, Vietnam, India, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Ghana, Uganda and other countries showed up at the Macao Tea Expo, either as exhibitors or as buyers. In addition, the Macao Tea Expo attracted many big figures from various realms, such as Macao Chief Executive, He Houhua(何厚鏵) and Li Yining(厲以寧), the well-known economist.
Having experienced the great event in Macao, the major tea canpanies maintain great enthusiasm towards the upcoming 2008 Guangzhou Tea Expo. According to the information provided by the organizing committee of the expo, at present, more than 400 businesses from China's main tea producing provinces, for example, Yunnan, Fujian, Anhui, Sichuan, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong, have already made a decision to attend this big tea party. And aside from tea, another 200 booths for Zishahu (紫砂壺) have contracted too.
In resent years, the tea industry on the mainland has experienced rapid development, and with the world's economic integration speeding up, the rest of the world's tea consumption trends integrate into our tea production, processing and packaging enterprises, which is creating new development opportunities for the tea industry. All along, the Taiwan tea industry has attached great importance to the mainland, with the hopes of making good use of the rich resource of the mainland and to actively find a breakthrough for the Taiwan tea market. Participating in the tea expo the mainland is one of their strategies. At the Guangzhou Tea Expo, Taiwan's tea enterprises, organized by the Taiwan Tea Manufacturers' Association, have already booked 20 booths with the organizing committee.
The tea enterprises of Yunnan, one of the biggest tea producing provinces in China, arc looking forward to joining the "party" too. According to statistics, in 2007 the cultivated area of tea plantations in Yunnan had reached 421 million acres, ranking the first among all the provinces in China. And the tea output occupied third place with 172,000 tons. This big tea province possesses many renowned tea enterprises, such as Menghai Tea Factory (勐海茶厰) and Yunnan Dianhong Group Co., Ltd. (愼紅集團), both of whom will make an appearance af the 2008 Guangzhou Tea Expo. Moreover, a group of exhibitors, organized by the Office of Yunnan Provincial Tea Industry, the Yunnan Governmental organization that offers guidance and service to the tea-related associations, have already booked 100 booths at the expo. Also, a series of activities aiming to promote Yunnan Tea will be carried out during the expo.
As far as Yunnan tea is concerned, people cannot help but think about Puerh Tea, the main type of tea from Yunnan, as well as the famous black tea produced there. Besides Yunnan, Anhui and Fujian are another two world famous regions for black tea. For fens of black tea, the 2008 Guangzhou Tea Expo may make them crazy because three well-known black teas from these three regions will appear in the expo for the first time. They are: Keemun (祁門紅茶) from Anhui, Dianhong (滇紅) from Yunnan' and Lapsang Souchong (正山小種紅茶) from Fujian Wuyi Mountain. Keemun, together with Assam tea, Darjeeling tea, Ceylon tea, is one of the four world-renowned black teas - It is exported to dozens of countries and regions like the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Germany, Japan, and Russia, Dianhong is produced in Fengqing County which is named as "The Hometown of Dianhong". It is sold to Hong Kong, Macao, Europe and the United States. Another black tea, Lapsang Souchong is believed to be an ancestor of Chinese tea, and has received many awards home and abroad. These three black teas, with their popularity and unique aroma, will surely send forth their charm at the expo.
What's more, the exhibition has made significant progress inviting overseas business. The major tea production and consumption countries of Asia and Africa wane to attend the 2008 Guangzhou Tea Expo. India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, etc. have been invited to this grand tea party and all have been given a warm response. So far, Vietnam and India, two major tea producing countries of the world, who give great recognition and support to the Guangzhou Tea Expo, making it clear they wish to participate the expo, In their view, the Guangzhou Tea Expo will be useful for them to open Chinese tea huge tea market.
The Vietnam Tea Association, the official tea management organization in Vietnam, has cooperated with the Guangzhou Yuexiu Exhibition Co., Ltd since the first expo in 2006. With such communication of both sides and the guide of the Vietnam Tea Association, Vietnamese tea has made a big step in the Chinese market. As one of the exhibitors at the Macao Tea Expo, the Vietnam Tea Association witnessed this expo's success and felt astonished and satisfied with it. Again, the value of the expo is affirmed, and Vietnam thinks highly of the huge market potential the expo creates. Different from last year, Vietnam has paid more attention to the booth design this year. Meanwhile, they will, for a special purposes, introduce a distinctive tea culture to China, in the hopes of giving Chinese people a profound understanding of its tea culture in addition to its high quality teas.
The guangzhou Tea Expo is considered to be provided with the function of "wind vane" and "thermometer" of the tea industry in China. It is playing a role in strengthening the tea industry and foreign trade exchanges and cooperation with other countries to achieve a win-win situation. Its market value and market effect have been approved by the Asian and African tea industries. Besides, the organizing committee of the tea expo is making a great effort to extend the expo's influence to Europe and America. Now some enterprises from America have shown great interest to the expo .
At the 2008 Guangzhou Tea Expo, a series of wonderfully themed activities will be presented, like a "Traditional Chinese Paintings Exhibition", a "Charity Auction", a "Tea Skills Competition", etc. In addition, Hong Kong's famous tea celebrities will come to Guangzhou to participate in the expo and give talks on teas. The 2008 Guangzhou Tea Expo is a big party, not only for tea producers and tea buyers, but also for tea lovers.
