Tea is an important economic crop in China. The area of tea gardens, tea output, and exports rank first in the world. In 2019, China’s tea gardens cover an area of 45.978 million acres, with a tea output of 2.7934 million tons, a total output value of 239.96 billion yuan of dry tea, a total export volume of 366,500 tons, and an export value of US$2.020 billion. Although China's tea resources are relatively abundant, in the context of traditional tea production exceeding sales, the low utilization rate of medium and low-grade tea and summer and autumn tea resources has affected the overall benefit level of the tea industry. There is still much room for improvement in the economic benefits of China's tea industry. Deep processing of tea has become an important way to realize the efficient use of tea resources, increase the added value of tea products, promote the transformation and upgrading of the tea industry, and expand the field of tea consumption. The development of deep tea processing and the development of traditional teas into healthy, convenient and fast diversified high value-added products have become a major trend in tea processing in the world.
Tea deep processing mainly refers to the use of fresh tea leaves, tea leaves, tea seeds, trimmed leaves and semi-finished products, finished products or by-products processed from them as raw materials, through the integrated application of biochemical engineering, separation and purification engineering, and food engineering , Preparation engineering and other fields of advanced technology and processing technology, to achieve the separation and preparation of effective ingredients or functional components of tea, and apply them to human health, animal health, plant protection, daily chemical industry and other fields.
After nearly 30 years of development, China's tea deep processing technology system is basically mature, and the scale, level, and efficiency of the tea deep processing industry have been significantly improved. At present, China’s tea deep processing field uses medium and low-grade tea raw materials that are less than 6% to 7% of the total tea output, creating an industrial scale and benefit (over 120 billion yuan) of the top one-third of China’s tea industry, effectively promoting High-value utilization of summer and autumn tea and middle and low-grade tea resources. At present, China's tea deep processing technology is developing from traditional technology to green, energy-saving, safe and efficient technology. The products are moving from tea extracts to high value-added functional end products. Formulas and preparation technologies developed around tea deep processing end products It is also developing rapidly.