The tea theme in China is almost three thousand years old. These people know how to sell tea. The format of Chinese tea shops is fundamentally different from how it is done in Western countries. Today we have a shopping tour. With photos, explanations and life hacks. Ready? Go!

Chinese retail stores are a separate layer and their own world. When a foreigner enters China for the first time, he is likely to be surprised by the number of tea shops. Often they are located not only on the same street, but also in the same house. Do they have enough customers? Yes, that's enough. Over and above! Because the average Chinese can live without bread, salt and matches, but not without tea.

These stores are located on the first floors of residential buildings. As a rule, they tend to busy streets and intersections. They can occupy a very different area - from ten square meters to hundreds. They can be furnished in many different ways, from luxurious tea areas to simple tables. But all these stores have one thing in common: you will be welcome in any of them.

Do not hesitate to go to the store that you like best. Feel natural and free. And notice the details. This is interesting.

Buying tea is not even a process, I would say it is an action. The first thing you will be asked to do is to sit down. Nobody buys tea standing up. Then you will probably be asked if you are hungry or not. (Because if you are hungry, you will not be offered green teas. It is believed that green teas are right to drink on a full stomach, otherwise they irritate its walls. And red or dark ones are good for any situation). And then you will be asked where you would like to start.

Buying tea in China, you must try it. Always. Such a rule.

First you need to decide on the variety. And you say, for example: "Teguanyin". Then you are asked a completely natural question that can baffle you for a couple of seconds: “What kind of Tieguanyin would you like to try?”

The fact is that any tea seller always has not only an assortment line, but also a price one. And you might be surprised how strong the price differentiation is within the same variety. I did not go too far with the phrase "price differentiation"?)

So, you can offer Tieguanyin cheaper, more expensive or average. But if you start digging a little deeper, you will find out that this tea is available for 200 yuan, and for 300, and for 500, and for 700, and for 1000, and for 1500, and for 2000, and so on, and end it could be somewhere in the region of 4-5 thousand. All this applies to other varieties - Pu-erh, green teas, red or white. In China, it is the norm for one seller to have ten or more prices within one variety. Don't ask me how the Chinese manage to maintain such a warehouse. I don't know.

Tea prices are always given for 0.5 kilograms. Please keep this in mind. In general, all price tags for weight goods in China are given for 0.5 kg. Be it rice, flour or apples.

Chinese tea shops are a very educational simulator. Here you can learn to distinguish the shades of aroma and taste, make parallel brews (my favorite technique) and put it all into the cells of your taste memory.

Very often, Western guests experience some embarrassment. “We’ve been sitting here for an hour and a half, we’ve drunk so much tea, but we haven’t bought anything yet.” I know this emotion well from our tea tourists.

Guys, I beg you, don't worry about it. You can stay here for as long as you want and choose your tea as painstakingly as you want. No tea seller will look askance at you. No. Because for the Chinese, the most important thing is a satisfied customer.

For the Chinese, time is an inexhaustible resource. Just take it for granted. And the time spent with the client is perhaps the best investment. Of course, I exaggerate a little. But I do it on purpose. I don't want you to be embarrassed when one day you find yourself in a tea shop and sit here. And you will definitely sit up!)

Your tea will be brewed in porcelain, Yixing clay or glass, depending on which region of China you are in. Light and dark oolongs are usually brewed in classic porcelain gaiwans. Pu-erh - mainly in Yixing teapots. And green and yellow teas from the province of Sichuan or, for example, Hunan - most often in simple glass glasses. In advanced metropolitan stores, there are usually sets of dishes for each type of tea. Don't analyze it too deeply. Trust the process. And watch.

The Chinese will give you tea until you stop them yourself. As soon as your empty bowl is put back on the tray, it will immediately be filled again. If you want to change tea, tell about it yourself. Do not wait for the initiative from the seller. This is not because the seller is “profitable” or “not profitable”, but because he is watching your reaction and waiting. That's right.

You must understand that tea is a matter of life. Therefore, there is a toilet in any store without exception. We got up, apologized, left, returned and - we continue!)

I think I will be right if I say that in China they do not buy tea, but buy-tea-from-the-seller. I will explain.

In spacious shops on the main streets, most often you will meet a pretty young girl on the other side of the table. Young girls are wonderful, hardly anyone will object. They are in national clothes, they have narrow waists, smooth gestures, and they brew tea perfectly. But they are silent and shy, and when you start to bargain, they hide their eyes, and they feel a little sorry for them.

In other stores, on the other side of the tea tables, you can sometimes find confident Chinese with wide palms. They are calm, restrained, and they have strength. They say they cut. Their words are nails. Their tea is strong and tart. And often among them there are simply incredible people!

There are shops where the sellers are adult graceful women. They know how to talk to any client. They see right through you. They lead the ceremony, and in their case it is really a ceremony. Their tea is very special.

On the other side of the tray is always a living person. And in those twenty-thirty-forty minutes (sometimes an hour or even an hour and a half) that you buy tea, you manage to get close to him. You are immersed in his energy and his world.

Buying tea here is psychotherapy. Conversations. Communication. That's why there are queues in some stores. Honestly, I love this approach to tea business. Pay attention to the face of the seller, to his mimicry. If you like her, come on in! In such intuitive matters we are rarely deceived.

And the last. Prices. I always recommend buying tea at the edge of your ability. Tea must be expensive. This is important for two reasons. Firstly, because there is a special attitude towards expensive tea. And secondly, on such tea you will correctly bring up your own taste.

This is an important point, on which I will allow myself to linger a little. I'm not at all extreme. And I do not insist. But if you want to buy really good tea, then think about the price that would be the maximum possible for you. Multiply it by two. And buy this tea. Consider this my personal formula for success in retail shopping.))

And don't you dare! Do you hear me? Do not try to buy tea without bargaining! Trade hard! Be unyielding. Show yourself! Cut the numbers in half on the calculator. If necessary, scream! Retail tea in China is an area of ​​high markups. The seller always has room to move. At such moments, you do not deprive him, but support some unspoken Chinese tradition: where there is tea, there is bargaining. This is a behavioral norm. And the more expensive the tea, the brighter the bargain!

Do the last two paragraphs contradict each other? Well, what to do? This is China - there is a paradox on a paradox.))

As for bargaining, you might feel a little uncomfortable the first time around. But with experience you will catch this buzz! Saying goodbye, the seller will raise his thumb up. And he will say something like: “The Russians are always so real!”

When you go to China and find yourself in a tea shop, feel soft, relaxed, graceful. Even if you don't speak Chinese, even if you're not a very big tea expert, it's okay to watch and participate. Retail tea shopping is a little emotional adventure every time.

Sailor Andrey Almazov wanted to open a tea boutique and taste elite varieties with customers. But that business model went down the drain. But a simpler and smaller tea shop quickly began to make a profit.

Andrey Almazov

Sea aspirations

The life of 31-year-old Andrey Almazov has always been connected with the sea. He was born in Novorossiysk, where he graduated from the nautical school, and then the Maritime University. Admiral Ushakov, having received the specialty of a navigator. For ten years of work by profession, Almazov visited almost all ports in Europe, Africa, Asia, South and North America and brought local tea from everywhere.

“Once, right in the Indian port, I bought all sorts of trinkets, among them was 200 g of tea in a gilded canvas bag with gold strings. Gave it to his parents. They were just happy: they drank tea in less than a week, ”recalls Almazov.

In 2009, Almazov, as the third mate, led a tanker from Europe to Brazil. Once a cadet Bin from China was put on watch to watch him. “Unexpectedly, we found out that he, a native Chinese, knows nothing at all about the tea culture of his homeland and is unlikely to be able to distinguish green tea from white,” Andrei recalls. Almazov ran to the cabin and brought bags with different varieties of Chinese tea, which surprised the cadet very much. And for the next couple of hours, he explained to Bin the intricacies of Chinese tea culture, and after the shift, he showed his skills in practice, brewing several varieties at once for testing. Since then, the international team has constantly asked Andrey to give her tea.

“I was not interested in coming from a voyage and immediately going on a binge, as sailors often do,” recalls Almazov. He received about $4,000 a month and could afford not to work between flights, but every time he was on land he tried to find a job at least somehow connected with tea, a sales representative of a tea company or a seller. “I became a tea addict,” he says.

In 2012, Almazov finally decided to leave the fleet: “Six months at sea, then half a year you come to your senses - no family life. Yes, and there is no time to make tea. ”

The collapse of the "Tea Mecca"

Almazov's voyages often ended in St. Petersburg, and he noticed that there was no good tea in the city. In 2013, Almazov moved to St. Petersburg and began looking for premises for a tea shop. Suitable, 30 sq. m, located in the city center. The rent was about 50 thousand rubles. per month, it was necessary to immediately pay the first and last months, as well as leave a deposit.

Andrey Almazov (Photo: Ekaterina Kuzmina for RBC)

For tea ceremonies, Almazov purchased special pear wood tea boards, tea tables, teapots made of purple Yixing clay, and gaiwan (cups for brewing with a saucer and lid). He bought 50 premium Chinese teas from distributors—green, turquoise, red, yellow, and white.

The launch of the Tea Mecca store cost the sailor 1 million rubles. “Everything was as it should be, I was satisfied and waited for clients,” Andrey recalls.

We had to wait a long time.

Shades of real tea

Turquoise tea is called oolong semi-fermented teas (fermentation is the main stage of tea leaf processing, consisting of roasting and oxidation), they are produced in China only in three places.

Red tea is highly fermented and is called black tea in Europe.

White tea is weakly fermented, it got its name from the appearance of a tea bud, densely covered with white pile.

Yellow is the rarest and most expensive type of Chinese tea. Previously, only the imperial family and the nobility could drink yellow tea.

“For most people, there are only two types of tea - black and green,” says Andrey Almazov. “And such subtleties as yellow or turquoise tea are of interest only to a narrow layer of people, but they are our customers.”

Almazov made a typical mistake of novice entrepreneurs. “I was sure that the best selling tea would be the one I liked, and flavored teas are sold all over the place,” he recalls, explaining his rejection of mass-market flavored teas (such as the popular Strawberries with Cream). ) and a bet on premium tea.

It quickly became clear that Andrei had a poor idea of ​​his own buyer. The first question that was asked by those who entered the store was usually this: “Where do you have Earl Gray and Cleopatra Night here? Not finding what they wanted, people left. “Shops in shopping centers have taught us that flavored varieties are real tea,” Almazov complains. “That’s why people don’t understand what it’s like: a tea shop, but Cleopatra isn’t there.”

But Almazov decided not to give up. He stocked up on patience and explained to each client the merits of real oriental tea. And for greater persuasiveness, he turned the process of communicating with a client into a real performance: in the middle of the store he set up an ebony tea table for 12 people and met customers sitting in a kimono with a cup of tea in his hands. But even such a move did not work: the people who entered the store most often did not dare to distract Almazov, who was drinking tea, and quickly left.

Andrey Almazov (Photo: Ekaterina Kuzmina for RBC)

Saving money, Almazov worked by himself, seven days a week, from morning to evening. But it never came to a profit. At best, he managed to recoup the rent and running costs. “In this mode, I lasted two years. I lived on savings until I realized that I had neither physical nor moral strength, my body was at zero, ”recalls Andrey.

In 2015 Almazov decided to sell the business. He was lucky - a buyer was found quickly: he became one of the regular customers who liked the atmosphere and assortment. Almazov sold the “Tea Mecca” “at the price of the remaining goods”, for 500 thousand rubles, losing almost 1.5 million rubles on the experiment.

Viktor Enin, the owner of Tea Height tea and ice cream house in the capital, says that the reason for the closure of many small tea projects is the incompetence of their owners, who are not well versed not only in tea, but also in the peculiarities of demand. From the outside, the business seems simple and interesting, but the reality is disappointing for many.

After the deal, Almazov left for his native Novorossiysk to think about what to do next. In the end, I decided to try again.

tea world

In 2016, 102.6 thousand tons of green and black tea were produced in Russia, which is 5% less than in 2015. This volume includes all types of tea: bagged, granulated, leaf, twisted. Most manufacturers simply package imported tea.

The decline in tea production has been observed for the past three years, they say in the Russian association "RosTeaCoffee". The rising currency played against the market: over the past three years, prices have almost doubled, on average from 226 thousand to 404 thousand rubles. per ton. The largest players in the Russian tea production market are Orimi, Strauss, Fes Product, Yakovlev tea-packing factory, Kuban-Ti, Santi, etc.

More than 500 retail tea shops operate in Moscow and St. Petersburg, more than half of them are chain players. Among the largest Russian networks are Cantata, Ounce, Zavarka, Tea Yard.

Source: Alto Consulting Group, Russian association "RosTeaCoffee"

Zen Business

At the beginning of 2016, Almazov rented a room literally on the street next to Tea Mecca. But he was determined not to step on the same rake. The premises were rented for only 25 thousand rubles. per month, but it was also twice less than before. The close proximity to Almazov's own former store did not bother him: "On the contrary, the proximity of competitors only fuels interest in the new player."

Andrey named the new store DzenTea. And worked hard on the bugs. First of all, he significantly expanded the tea range. First of all, due to those most unloved flavored varieties - they occupied 30% of the line. “In China, they didn’t hear anything about such flavored teas, but in Russia they are in high demand, I had to put up with it,” Almazov admits. “Although flavored varieties are not tea, but a tea drink.” In addition, he added coffee beans (Italian, Ethiopian and Brazilian) to the assortment: every second buyer asks for it.

Inside a small room, there are oak counters, tin boxes with tea and antique tea utensils on the shelves. The only seller is not in a hurry: he calmly weighs the tea, pours it into branded bags, signs and simultaneously brews tea in a clay or glass teapot. Customers are slowly tasting.

DzenTea sells one hundred varieties of green, red, white, turquoise, yellow tea (several types of each), so that in total the assortment exceeds 200 tea items. Expensive Chinese tea accounts for 35% of the assortment. The remaining 30% is shared by Indian, Taiwanese and Japanese teas.

Plus everything you need for a tea ceremony - tea boards (from 3.9 thousand rubles), a variety of tea utensils and tea tables (their cost reaches 18 thousand rubles). But chocolate, sweets and other sweets, which are often included in the assortment of ordinary tea shops, are not on the shelves. Competitors believe that in vain. “It is impossible to survive on the premium tea trade alone, such enthusiasts close in a year,” says Oleg Karlov, owner of a small Moscow tea shop Oolong. “I won’t be surprised if sweets still appear in the DzenTea assortment: they account for 30% of our total revenue.”

Almazov prefers to call his new store a boutique. “Buying tea is a process that requires at least some time. We understand that most of our guests are always running somewhere, so we are very happy if they not only taste and buy tea, but also spend a few minutes talking with the seller. We do business in a zen style, and this obliges us to a leisurely pace,” says Almazov.

Chatting over a cup of tea helps shoppers come to terms with boutique prices. The cost of 25 g of green “bai hao ying jen” is 395 rubles, for the same 25 g of “ya-bao” (buds of “pu-erh”) they ask 420 rubles, for weakly fermented white oolong tea “bo jun” - 350 rubles. But this is not the limit. The most expensive tea is yellow, 25 g cost 1250 rubles. Almazov has only one type of such tea: “It is very rare, expensive and little known, we are not ready to keep several types.”

For comparison: 100 g of Strawberries with Cream or Cleopatra Nights, so popular among Russians, cost about 150 rubles. Almazov replenishes tea stocks as they are spent, on average once a month. The main suppliers are Moscow distributors of Chinese tea Wintergreen and Slon. Almazov buys part of the assortment directly from China through local partners - former Russians. Retail margin is about 100%.

Second brew

If you walk along Kolokolnaya Street towards Vladimirsky Prospekt, you may not even notice the DzenTea store - only a heavy carved door with oriental patterns and a traditional bell over it hint at the “colonial” assortment. But Almazov is not embarrassed by such invisibility: "If these are really our guests, they will not pass us by."

Photo: Ekaterina Kuzmina for RBC

Almazov almost never spends on promoting his project: “Premium tea is difficult to advertise, the time to promote a store can be a year or more. Most of the guests come to us on the recommendation, word of mouth works great.” Nevertheless, he got a website and promotes it in social networks, which takes about 20 thousand rubles. per month.

Andrey has finally found a like-minded seller - Mikhail Dudin, who is also deeply immersed in tea culture. This allowed Almazov to spend last summer on the plantations of the Matsesta company in Sochi: “I looked at the entire tea production cycle - from picking to drying tea leaves. Now I dream of the same trip to the plantations of China.”

A more competent assortment policy and the rejection of performances have brought results. Unlike the first store, where there were several customers a week, up to 20 customers make purchases in DzenTea every day, the average check is 1.2 thousand rubles. The boutique reached operating payback four months after the opening. Revenue for 2016 - 3 million rubles. Monthly profit now is about 80 thousand rubles.

At the beginning of 2017, Almazov opened a second boutique, further from the center, in an even more modest space. And again he stood behind the counter. So the trip to China is postponed at least until next summer.

Probably many thought to sell Chinese tea, order small batches on Aliexpress, Taobao and sell in Russia with a 30% markup. Or open a teahouse, such as points - "coffee to go." In cities such outlets with a coffee pond. Even if you think about it, then you better think about whether the game is worth the candle. We will tell you about the tea business from personal experience.

Nowadays, it is possible to carry tea from China only depending on for what purposes. Everyone has tried Oolong and Pu-erh tea, and everyone liked some of these tea drinks very much, but there are many varieties of Chinese tea. If you bring the entire range, then more than 80% will simply gather dust on the shelves!

If you only think that Chinese tea is becoming popular, you are wrong! Not long ago you appreciated and discovered this culture, but already in Russia even pensioners of conservative views go and ask for 50 grams of "Milk Oolong" or "Lone Bushes from the Phoenix Mountains". There are a lot of shops now, the topic is not new, we regularly deliver this product to different cities of Russia, not to say that by wagons, but there are orders, which means there is a demand for a long time.

How to sell Chinese tea?

Option 1. As an option, open a mini-department in a shopping center or department store, where you will be happy to conduct a tasting for the buyer and punch 100 grams of fresh Lychee at the checkout.

Option 2. A social group on the Internet or a website - it will be difficult to promote such a project through search engines or social networks, no one knows or drank your tea. An exception is if a well-known company, for example, the Menghai factory, which produces Shen and Shu pu-erh, connoisseurs will take like pies if the price tag is good.

Option 3. You can also do business through the site - landing page (Landing page), and why not make a site with famous varieties of Shu pu-erh from famous factories. There is a lot of writing about pu-erh in blogs and forums. You can simply advertise Menghai pu-erh with a rare recipe (read about pu-erh recipes on the Internet). A one-pager is great for specialized online stores (goods per person), only there will be advertising costs. By the way, do not be fooled by the offer of companies - Landing in 3 days, etc., quick sales of leads, and more! The site will be made, but there will be no sales, you still need to give money to put them into advertising, and if this is contextual advertising, then you need a lot of money and it’s a big expense to start.

Option 4. Tea room with a simple name, like "coffee to go", small mini-kiosks in shopping centers, business centers and universities! For example, if you need to stay indoors, then a couple of tables in the traditional style are enough: chairs, a shelf with books about Chinese culture (to make it interesting to drink), a traditional tea table or a counter where a miracle drink is poured, and music. The entire organization of the "tea bar" and the rent will take a month's salary.

On the street, you can sell through the extension counters in cafes, restaurants or famous eateries. Perhaps, but not the fact that this is a good idea, it is better to offer this restaurant to add your delicious Lapsan Souchong to the menu.

The most interesting idea in this tea wilds of business, which does not require any costs, is to offer your tea to local shops for sale! Or just sell at a good wholesale price and regulate the supply. What is needed for this? Just open a map of your city (2Gis) - write out confectionery counters, snack bars, cafe-restaurants, and with a beautiful commercial offer, and a tasty price, pay a visit.

Where to get Chinese tea for business!

An easy option is to find where it is cheaper on the trading floors! There are a lot of such sites in China, the most popular are: Taobao, Aliexpress, Alibaba, 1688. Many trading companies are ready to send any amount of tea from China in any quantity, but before ordering, you need to try everything. Order more samples! You have placed an order, write to the sender to send you 3 gram samples, they are distributed free of charge in wholesale markets in China! Try all kinds of tea, you will feel the difference, different varieties from different places and different prices! The higher the mountains where there are dense plantations - the more expensive the drink!

When we were in Guangzhou, in the largest wholesale tea market (a whole area of ​​tea shops and shopping centers), we spent more than one day there in search of the best product. We found it - great price, divinely fragrant taste and huge range! We agreed on regular deliveries, as the seller speaks excellent English and is trustworthy, and he did not let us down. Already in Russia they ordered a lot of tea for a good amount.

Delivery arranged through our company. After 14 days, the tea was in Novosibirsk - tea was sent from the south, it was quite fresh!

If you need excellent Chinese tea and inexpensive delivery, we will tell you in detail how to arrange deliveries. Tea is available in vacuum packaging, you can even appreciate the taste!
There is also a good trading company that supplied a miracle drink, found it on AliExpress.

Another way to carry tea is to ask agents of intermediaries, those who buy goods. They definitely know worthy varieties, the Chinese almost all love tea because it is a tradition and culture, they definitely won’t advise bad things, but perhaps the price will be too high.

Delivery of Chinese tea from China

To everything written above, it is important to add how important the supplier is! The one who will deliver the goods to you! The product must be fresh! "Oolong", if someone is not in the know, is stored in refrigerators, other teas also have their own expiration date. After a month, the aroma begins to disappear - after half a year the taste is already different!

We supply coffee/tea from China for 260 rubles/kg. We send to all regions of Russia and the CIS transport companies.
All cargoes go through our warehouse in Manchuria quickly enough.
Delivery time for tea from the south of China to Russia is 14-20 days.
Delivery is carried out from 1 kg.

Along with strong coffee in our country, aromatic tea is considered one of the most popular drinks. This can be used by young entrepreneurs who want to open their own business. Chinese tea in terms of production and export is a leader in the world. Its popularity can be explained by a wide range of varieties, excellent taste, and healing characteristics.

What should be included in a business plan?

To organize this type of entrepreneurial activity, first of all, it is necessary to write a business plan for the future enterprise. The most elementary concepts that should be included in it are "Chinese tea supplier", "schemes for delivering products to our country", and also "method of implementation."

In this case, you can consider selling through specialized points, an online store or auctions. Do not forget about such seemingly insignificant nuances as ensuring the conditions for storing tea.

Where to buy products?

As practice shows, the best place through which you can develop your tea business is the Taobao website. Here you can find a variety of types of this drink. Moreover, the pricing policy will also please you very much. The main problem is to find a profitable intermediary. However, this is not entirely necessary, because by installing a local messaging program, you can try to persuade a potential supplier to send products to our country.

Another good wholesale platform is Aliexpress. Its main advantage is that in addition to common varieties, there are quite rare species that are difficult to find elsewhere. These include bound and pressed types of tea, the exposure of which is about five years.

Tea varieties

It is impossible to organize such a type of entrepreneurial activity as the sale of Chinese tea without understanding the varieties of the drink. Gradation in this case is made on the basis of the method of collection and properties. In this case, three main groups are distinguished: green (unfermented), oolong (semi-fermented), as well as black and red (fermented) tea.

The first of these types is rightfully considered the most useful. It allows you to improve metabolic processes in the body, gives a person cheerfulness and perfectly quenches thirst. A distinctive characteristic of oolong tea is that over time it changes its taste. It should be noted that it is produced exclusively in China.

Red tea has a rich aroma and bright color, while black tea is made under conditions of natural aging. White varieties have a subtle taste and are popular for their aftertaste. Yellow Chinese tea has the status of the most elite. From China, he came to us as an imperial drink. The disclosure of its taste occurs gradually, and the aroma is rich and sharp.

Purchase cost

The drink has such a large number of varieties that it is almost impossible to remember each of them. The same can be said for the cost. By going to the Internet resources mentioned above, you can find out the cost of certain types. At the same time, as practice shows, the profit here will be very profitable.

For example, if the wholesale cost of one kilogram of tea in China is 850 rubles, then in our country it is sold at a retail price, that is, about 5,400 rubles. An important nuance that should not be forgotten is that different Chinese companies have their own requirements regarding the minimum order volume - from 50 kilograms to one ton.

Company registration and documentation

In order to engage in such activities as the sale of Chinese tea in our country, it is necessary to draw up a number of documents. First of all, you will have to open and register in the prescribed manner an LLC with foreign economic activity.

Next, you should get a foreign currency current account in any bank and register with the state statistical agency. Only after that you can start looking for an importing company. Such a firm must have and provide upon request a certificate of registration, as well as a license giving the right to export.

Tea transportation

Import of tea to Russia from China is one of the key links in the organization of this type of entrepreneurial activity. It is desirable that the goods be tracked by a customs broker during the transportation process, because the cost of storing it in a temporary warehouse is quite high. Subject to the existence of an appropriate agreement, the import of the product into our country will be much faster.

As for the cost of transportation, it depends on the distance, weight of the goods, as well as its features. In the case of Chinese tea, the fee will be approximately four dollars per kilogram. As for the documents that must be provided for customs control, this is a contract, invoice, packing list, certificate for customs, as well as a sanitary conclusion.

Sales of goods in Russia

There are several ways in which Chinese tea can be sold. The easiest way is to create your own website. In addition, you can open a specialized shop in any large shopping center. A good location and attractive design are the key to a large number of customers. In the store, it is necessary to provide a small room that will serve as a warehouse.

Important characteristics that it must meet are good ventilation, dryness and warmth. Significantly increase profits by having agreements with bars and coffee houses where a large amount of this product is required for retail trade, as well as for the preparation of various drinks.

Marketing

In any type of business, the presence of customers, including regular ones, is affected by a competent marketing policy. Selling Chinese tea is no exception. Businessmen who are just starting to work in this area are advised to purchase at least 50 types of drink to begin with.

A demand study will later show which varieties are more popular, and will also allow you to properly regulate the volume of purchases. Do not forget about seasonality, since during the summer months, unfermented varieties are most in demand, while in winter tea is bought most often on holidays.

Not the last role is played by the appearance of the product packaging. To popularize the tea shop, it is recommended to organize sales or tastings from time to time. In order to diversify the business in the store, you can organize the sale of accessories, including cups, saucers, teapots, and so on.

Investment and payback period

It is quite logical to ask whether the sale of tea is profitable and how soon the invested money will pay off? As experience shows, in order to open a shop specializing in the purchase and sale of Chinese tea, it is necessary to invest about one and a half million rubles. As for the payback period of the project, if properly organized, it will be about eight months.

Today in China, the tea bush is cultivated in more than ten provinces. Green tea is the most popular, with an annual production of more than 1.2 million tons. And despite the fact that China's share among the world's tea exporters is only 18%, the tea business seems to be a profitable and even somewhat fashionable activity. We spoke with an expert in Chinese tea and the tea business Grigory Potemkin, the author of the RealChinaTea project, about the Chinese tea business and the nuances of working in this area.

For a long time, Chinese tea was a domestic product. In the seventeenth century, through a series of trial and error, tea trade began between China and Europe. The first batches of tea were only a few kilograms, but over time, the volumes began to grow: Chinese tea in Europe became an increasingly popular product.

“It was an incredible exotic and fabulously expensive product. You can imagine what kind of logistics it is, go crazy, what risks! However, about 300 years ago, Europeans started drinking tea in earnest. The progress has been stunning. Everything led to the fact that the tea trade began to wash money out of the English crown.

Tea became one of the dominant areas of trade between China and England. For a long time, the Chinese sold tea only for silver, which, by the way, became the main prerequisite for starting the opium wars. After China completely closed itself off from Europe, the British simply stole tea bushes and planted them in India.

“There was a whole story. An English daredevil arrived, whose name no one knows anymore, began to live here, learned Chinese, and gained confidence. One cloudy day, somewhere near Wuyishan (武夷山), he dug up a hundred bushes of tea seedlings. The British took with them several tea masters and took them to India, planted tea there. And, oh gods! All this took root, gave an excellent harvest. From that moment began the great tea history of India. Then from India, tea went further. So, to put it very simply, the world tea industry began to develop.

The Chinese tea industry and the world tea industry are two planes that do not intersect, Grigory believes. In the production of Indian teas, from the very beginning, everything is aimed at reducing the overhead costs of production. In India, mountains are leveled for tea plantations so that tea leaves can be harvested with combines, because the machine method is more efficient than the manual one. The entire infrastructure is sharpened for turnover; here you can see automated industrial workshops.

“Indian teas are an alkaloid product for general consumption. All tea super brands that we know are made in India at low prices. Despite the fact that both Chinese and Indian products are called tea, these worlds do not have points of intersection, and the portrait of the buyer is completely different. It is important to understand that with Chinese teas - aesthetics. Indian teas are given to the population.”

Tea is often a family business. As a rule, the father in the manufactory is engaged in production, and his wife or daughter has a retail and wholesale shop in the city at the foot of the tea plantations. But at the same time, China also has a tea business at the corporate level with a huge number of people involved, giant warehouses, sales departments and so on. Such corporations are not engaged in production, but they are brilliant at selling, including abroad.

“In our work with corporations, we do not intersect, we work directly with farmers. We get tea hot, from the roasting pot. It makes a lot of sense."

“The golden age of tea in China is now. What is happening in this area is simply incredible. The annual growth of the market is 25%, more, probably, only in the cosmetics market. Prices increase by my feelings by 15% per year. And if three or five years ago I met suppliers, and they were people who rode bicycles, now on their plantations almost everyone rides English or German off-road vehicles.”

One of the largest retail tea markets in China is located in Guangzhou - about 5,000 disparate shops gathered in one place, where all kinds of teas are presented without any system. This market is good because you can find all the varieties that exist in China. Other tea markets, located in Xiamen, Hangzhou, Anxi, Wuyishan, specialize only in their local teas.

“The vast majority of our Russian colleagues in this area make purchases at the market in Guangzhou. This is neither good nor bad. This is completely normal. We go - painstaking, complex, but devilishly interesting. We climb mountains ourselves. This allows us to shorten the chain of intermediaries and periodically look for pearls that can only be found in the fields and only with legs.”

There is no state control and clear norms in the tea industry, the state does not interfere in production and does not regulate it in any way and does not impose special taxes, Grigory told us. Indeed, in official sources one can find information only about the support of landowners in general.

“Speaking of tea fakes, it is important to understand that in Beijing, on the tourist street, an idle tourist can be sold the most mediocre tea for a high price, but this is not fake and a successful sale. Moreover, buying tea in China, a foreigner, to a certain extent, is doomed to be slightly deceived. Take it philosophically. In teas that are sold by weight, fakes, as such, do not exist. There is only an "inadequately overpriced offer." But real "pirated" fakes are present in large numbers in the world. pu-erh».

Puer is a gigantic market that is not visible to the buyer from Russia, on which billions of yuan are circulating. The advantages of the business are that, with a relatively low cost of raw materials, the cost of wholesale sales is quite high and the retail price is infinitely high. It attracts thousands of adventurers.

"Here, for example, damn pu-erh, which is produced by our friends. Its cost is about 50 yuan. In wholesale, it will cost hundreds of yuan. And if you put it in storage for six years, then it will cost a thousand. If you store it not for six years, but, say, twelve, by that time it will already cost, perhaps, tens of thousands. This market is shrouded in marketing mystery, everyone is hunting for aged pu-erh. There are collectors of aged pu-erh, auctions aged pu-erh, repositories with special conditions. They're delicious, they're great, but they're devilishly overpriced."

"Tea pirates take some pu-erh, maybe even good, maybe even aged, wrap it in a package from a well-known pu-erh famous factory, which was released about fifteen years ago. On purpose, this packaging is aged, specially it is perforated, brilliantly imitating exposure. A non-professional will never distinguish from the original. The cost and price of the sale of such a product may differ by thousands of percent. Fabulous! That's where the real rock and roll is."

“This is just one of the variants of tea piracy. There are others. For example, there are well-known factories that make good tea, high quality and expensive. And literally three kilometers from them there are other factories that make pu-erh very mediocre, but it doesn't cost them anything to pack their pancakes in the packaging of a famous neighbor. It's as easy as stirring sugar with a spoon. It's impossible to track. There are now thousands of factories in Yunnan. It's such a gorgeous tea chaos."

“Our tea lovers are mostly familiar with large factories, and small manufactories and farmers are practically unknown, although it is precisely among such manufactories that you should look for pearls, because they often produce underestimated teas from high places. To find a great manufacturer, you have to try and try.

In Russia, Chinese tea today is an elite product, they do not drink it in order to get drunk. They aestheticize with it and enjoy it. As soon as the crisis happened, the possibilities of tea aesthetes were reduced, but, of course, they did not disappear completely.

“At first glance, doing Chinese tea is easy. You make a group in Vkontakte - done! Now you're into Chinese tea. Another thing is to earn. There are several niche companies, they can be counted on the fingers of one hand, which feel confident in this field and earn. And another 98% are activists who shine everywhere, write articles, take photos of bowls and pouring tea money toad. As a rule, these are not very successful projects from a commercial point of view. The modern Russian market for Chinese tea is often just activity without much result.”

Sales of Chinese tea abroad are small in comparison with the domestic market, and amount to only about 300 thousand tons per year (compared to 1.2 million). In the foreign market tea - club product. In other words, the Chinese tea market is a market with products for which there is no formed demand. What kind of tea is sold is important, but how it is made is the determining factor.

“This must be clearly understood. It is both limitless opportunity and limitless risk. Today it is an emerging market. Small. Niche. But developing incredibly. It will take many more years until stagnation sets in.”

Photos provided by Grigory Potemkin.

Photo from jingtea.com used for title illustration.