China Tea Import &Export Corporation Limited A short History

 

China Tea Corporation Limited

A short History, submitted by Tehahlia

Mike Petro’s tireless enthusiam in bringing us the fascinating world of Pu’er is truly admirable; recently he began work on a list of pu’er tea factories to help us understand the pu’er teas and cakes we have been drinking, but few really know about of the factory history. However, there is only so much explanation one can fill in a list, and where the limited space in a list cannot fulfil, I shall try to expand on some of the better known pu’er factories in this article. I shall start with the Big Brother of all tea corporations in China, the China Tea Corporation Limited (中国茶叶股份有限公司). The green ‘Cha’ 茶 character in a circle of ‘Zhong’ 中 characters is a logo many of us are familiar, one which we have seen so often on the wrappers and stickers of pu’ers. As Maria sang in The Sound of Music, ’Let’s start at the very beginning’

1937, 1 May

China Tea Company (中国茶叶公司)was established in Shanghai. Two months later on 7th July, the incident of Marco Polo Bridge which marked the start of the second Sino-Japanese War also forced the company to be relocated to Chongqing. The Rape of Nanking began on 13th December of the same year.

1938, 16th December

China Tea Company joined forces with The New Fu-Tien Bank (富滇新银行) to establish China Yunnan Tea Trade Corporation Limited (云南中国茶叶贸易公司). In 1944, the company changed its name simply to China Yunnan Tea Trade Corporation (云南中国茶叶公司).

1949, 23rd November

The first state-owned corporation, The China Tea Corporation (中国茶叶公司), was established.

1950

China Yunnan Tea Trade Corporation became a subsidiary and was known as China Tea Corporation Yunnan Province Branch (中国茶叶公司云南省).

1951, 15 December

China Tea Corporation was awarded the rights to use the ‘Zhong Cha’ 中茶牌 logo on its products.

1956, 1st January

China Tea Corporation changed its name to China Tea Export Corporation (中国茶叶出口公司). on 1st January 1961, it merged with China Native Products Corporation to form China National Tea &Native Products Import & Export Corporation(中国茶叶土产进出口公司); and on August 1965 to China National Tea & Native Products Import & Export [Head] Corporation (中国茶叶土产进出口总公司).

1971

China National Tea &Native Products Import & Export [Head] Corporation merged with China National Animal By-products Corporation to form the China National Native Products &Animal By-products Import &Export Corporation, also known as China Tuhsu (中国土产畜产进出口公司).

1985, 25th February

With the approval from the Ministry of Foreign Trade &Economic Cooperation, China Tea Industrial Corporation (中国茶叶进出口公司)was formed as a subsidiary to China Tuhsu.

1988

Structural reform in China Tuhsu saw the breakaway of 83 subsidiaries, leaving only 9 tea subsidiaries still under China Tuhsu: Yunnan, Fujian, Hainan, Sichuan, Guangxi, Guangdong, Jiangxi, Hunan, and Shanghai branches.

1997, August

The coordination and administration on the import and export of tea were transferred to the China Chamber of Commerce of Import &Export of Foodstuffs, Native products &Animal By-products (CNFA).

1998, 10th August

The privatization of tea trade in China, factories with import and export rights were allowed to conduct their own trading.

2000, 23 November

National Committee of Foreign Trade &Economic Cooperation approved the reformation of China Tea Industrial Corporation to China Tea Import &Export Corporation Limited (中国茶叶股份有限公司), or Zhongcha Company(中茶公司) for short.

Present

with the formation of a new company, China Tea Import &Export Co., Ltd. asserted its rights on the exclusive use of the ‘Zhong Cha’ logo.