Taiwanese Old Growth Tea Theft
Posted: Fri Nov 08, 2019 7:07 am
Hi All,
This week our partner farm had their winter pick stolen off the trees in the mountains of the Liugui region in south-western Taiwan. The trees in that area are between 100-200 years old and thankfully there was minimal damage to the trees themselves. The trees are on aboriginal reserve land that our partner farm has leased from the owners. The police are involved and we are hoping that some of the motion sensor activated forest cameras caught the thieves. We will know more next week. Fresh leaf for about 10-30kgs of finished tea was stolen.
We highly doubt that this tea will make it into the western market but we are hoping to raise the awareness level. If anyone sees a tea labelled 'Taiwanese Gushu', 'Taiwanese Puer' or Taiwanese Ancient Tree Material I would really appreciate a heads up. There are respectable, and very nice, vendors who have acquired some of this tea legally in the past and we are by no means accusing anyone of 'tea theft'. It is 99.9% likely that this tea will stay in Taiwan and be consumed by asshole 'private collectors' trying to save a few dollars by stealing other people's tea.
We have decided to go public with this problem because we want to set a precedent that tea thieves can't easily resell this tea. The most likely culprits are local aboriginals who then sell the leaf to shady tea factories for a quick buck. This last year has been quiet for theft but in the past 500+ year old trees have been cut down for the leaves. If tea theft becomes commonplace this may start to happen again. We want to avoid the loss of these rare trees as much as we possibly can.
Here is a quick video about the situation:
I will be updating with more information as it comes and if you have any questions, please feel free to ask. This winter I may head to the area to document the situation more and we will be there in the spring for the harvest for sure. Hopefully we can stay ahead of the tea poachers. Thanks for reading.
-Matt Hopkins
This week our partner farm had their winter pick stolen off the trees in the mountains of the Liugui region in south-western Taiwan. The trees in that area are between 100-200 years old and thankfully there was minimal damage to the trees themselves. The trees are on aboriginal reserve land that our partner farm has leased from the owners. The police are involved and we are hoping that some of the motion sensor activated forest cameras caught the thieves. We will know more next week. Fresh leaf for about 10-30kgs of finished tea was stolen.
We highly doubt that this tea will make it into the western market but we are hoping to raise the awareness level. If anyone sees a tea labelled 'Taiwanese Gushu', 'Taiwanese Puer' or Taiwanese Ancient Tree Material I would really appreciate a heads up. There are respectable, and very nice, vendors who have acquired some of this tea legally in the past and we are by no means accusing anyone of 'tea theft'. It is 99.9% likely that this tea will stay in Taiwan and be consumed by asshole 'private collectors' trying to save a few dollars by stealing other people's tea.
We have decided to go public with this problem because we want to set a precedent that tea thieves can't easily resell this tea. The most likely culprits are local aboriginals who then sell the leaf to shady tea factories for a quick buck. This last year has been quiet for theft but in the past 500+ year old trees have been cut down for the leaves. If tea theft becomes commonplace this may start to happen again. We want to avoid the loss of these rare trees as much as we possibly can.
Here is a quick video about the situation:
I will be updating with more information as it comes and if you have any questions, please feel free to ask. This winter I may head to the area to document the situation more and we will be there in the spring for the harvest for sure. Hopefully we can stay ahead of the tea poachers. Thanks for reading.
-Matt Hopkins