http://www.sevencups.com/forum/ Seven Cups Tea Forum Topic: Pesticide use en Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:29:52 +0000 http://www.sevencups.com/forum/topic/24#post-74 Wed, 01 Aug 2007 16:15:45 +0000 admin 74@http://www.sevencups.com/forum/ <p>Hi Adam<br /> There are few estates in China. Tea production there is most small family farmers. Since there is a premium for exported tea, organics in the tea industry has been growing rapidly. Still it is much easier to control a plantation than a small farmer, so it is difficult to be assurred unless the tea buyer pays close attention to the farming practices. The spot light is also shown more intensely on China because they are competition that the international tea business would like to marginalize. The use of pesticides are very common in the other tea producing countries and by comparison China's push towards organics in significate. China also does extensive testing for contaminates in tea, and have doubled the effort since the pet food scandals, so it is taking twice as long to clear Chinese customs. There are enormous price pressures in the international market, and organic tea crops have a diminished level of production. The issue is very complicated as you can imagine. If you asked, what about pesticides in the US, you would get a complicated answer, though organics are on the rise here as well. I hope this helps. I write about this subject often, so please check out other related entries both here and on our blog.</p> <p>Austin </p> http://www.sevencups.com/forum/topic/24#post-72 Tue, 24 Jul 2007 08:11:43 +0000 adam 72@http://www.sevencups.com/forum/ <p>Could you share your understanding of pesticide use on tea estates in China. </p>