China launches OCOP initiative to promote sustainable tea industry

Dongguan, China 13 April 2024 - China has launched the One Country One Priority Product (OCOP) China Tea Programme & International Tea Day Campaign 2024 with a launch event held on 12 April in Dongguan, Guangdong province.

The OCOP is a flagship initiative of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), that helps countries promote their special agricultural products with unique qualities and special characteristics at the global, regional and local levels. It fosters more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agri-food systems by optimizing production, minimizing environmental and social impacts and maximizing benefits for farmers and value chain actors. Since its inception in September 2021, 85 countries have committed to promote 54 special agricultural products around the world.

In November 2022, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) of China nominated tea as one of China’s SAPs for the OCOP country programme. The OCOP China Tea Programme orientates itself towards the eco-friendly and low-carbon approaches, focuses on the value chain, and incorporates the promotion of technology integration, base establishment, product certification, market development and international exchanges, to invigorate the productivity of the tea industry, to boost the green and low-carbon transformation and development of the industry, and to introduce more high-quality Chinese tea to the world. The Programme will be jointly implemented by the Agricultural Trade Promotion Centre (ATPC) and National Agro-Tech Extension and Service Centre (NATESC) of the MARA, with the Tea Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (TRI-CAAS) as the main technical support unit.

A tea garden in China. ©FAO

21 May 2024 marks the 5^th International Tea Day. FAO is leading the celebration of International Tea Day globally to promote the sustainable production, consumption and trade of tea, to provide opportunities for stakeholders at the global, regional and national levels, and to ensure that the tea industry continues to play a role in reducing extreme poverty, combating hunger and conserving natural resources.