According to the latest statistics from Shanghai Customs, tea exports via Shanghai Port - China's largest port - totalled 80,700 tons during the first nine months of this year, a drop of 11.5 percent compared with the same period last year.

Customs officials estimated the country's overall tea exports had decreased around 10 percent since the country entered the global trade club last December.

The statistics are "not in line with expectations," said the Shanghai Customs statistical commission in their newly released report on tea exports.

According to the report, tea exports to major European countries via the Shanghai port decreased more than 20 per cent during the first nine months of this year since the European Union (EU) set up new standards stipulating that the amount of pesticide used on tea be reduced by 100 times.

Japan, the United States and Russia are following the European Union in launching similar restrictions on the use of pesticides on tea.

The commission attributed such non-tariff barriers as a main cause for the decline in China's tea exports.

Such "green" trade barriers mean "a disaster for us," said Li Nianhua, general manager of the Anhui Provincial Tea Import and Export Corporation.

"Actually, the tiny amount of pesticide remnants on tea is seldom soaked out in water," said Li.

But the EU insisted on inspecting the tea leaves instead of the tea water, according to Li.

Customs experts urged farmers to adopt new cultivation technologies so as to meet the new international standards.

Zhejiang Province in East China set a good example of reducing pesticide remnants, said Sun Simin, who is with the publicity office under Shanghai Customs.

Tea producers in Zhejiang adopted technologies developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences earlier this year and have had no cases of exceeding pesticide limits so far, according to Sun.

The province achieved total tea exports of 47,300 tons during the first nine months of this year via the Shanghai Port, a year-on-year increase of 11.5 percent, according to customs statistics.

Besides such technical trade barriers against Chinese tea, other Asian countries like Indonesia, Viet Nam, India and Sri Lanka are also mass producing tea, which has created more competitive pressure on China's tea exports, according to the local foreign trade authority.

(China Daily November 1, 2002)