No old trees for foreigners anymore! ;D

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aet
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Wed Nov 30, 2022 7:02 pm

From next year foreigners are not allowed to directly purchase leaves from tea trees over 100y old.
Source : https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/CWohY1dEhJVy27IuU50M3Q
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Bok
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Wed Nov 30, 2022 9:14 pm

Hope the vendors get the message to remove their already fake old tree markings stating :lol:
Probably they are only increasing the price as it would then need to be indirectly sourced, incurring more time and work...
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aet
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Wed Nov 30, 2022 9:50 pm

I think they found out too much old trees being exported since every second western online shop has some 800y old trees etc. DDDD
and yes, good tool for marketing now. Everything claimed over 100y old can be increased on price now ;-D Probably starting even from the tea farmers saying ; we sell u 300y old stuff but we risk high penalty so the price is high . Maybe it will create new job opportunities for balck market, Chinese who will secretly buying old trees mao cha for laowai ;D
Somewhere down below in this article they mainly focus on exporting the fruit and seeds in order to avoid trees being grown outside of China. What is all that about , we can only speculate.
Although it is my wife ( local ) who actually purchases from the farmers, I can imagine that local police might interpret that new law them selves the way like - no laowai allowed to even enter to old trees garden or village. Some places in Yunann are like that ( you have to get some special permission to get in as a foreigner , like just to se the place ) and it's not a borderor military security case.
I can see the paranoya around Covid so wouldn't be surprised similar reaction on this as well.
I mean , there are probably less than 10 of us here who still managed to survive on tea biz and haven't left coz Covid 0 policy hassle which most of foreigners couldn't bare anymore. And now they come up with this, when the age of tea trees not clear anyway.
Andrew S
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Wed Nov 30, 2022 10:32 pm

There'll be a new euphemism on wrappers: instead of '1000 year old trees', they'll say '99 year old trees' on anything sold in the West.

Andrew
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teatray
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Thu Dec 01, 2022 12:31 am

(If google translator doesn't lie), seems only fresh material (seeds, seedlings, fruits, leaves, etc.) is being restricted. Not that it's a good thing, but processed tea should still be freely purchasable by anyone.
It is worth mentioning that the "Regulations" also clarify that foreigners are prohibited from collecting or purchasing ancient tea tree seeds, fruits, roots, stems, seedlings, buds, leaves, flowers and other planting or propagating materials within the administrative area of ​​Yunnan Province. It is stipulated that the forestry, grassland, agricultural and rural authorities at or above the county level will confiscate the planting materials or propagation materials of ancient tea trees collected and purchased, and may impose a fine of not less than 10,000 yuan but not more than 50,000 yuan.
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Balthazar
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Thu Dec 01, 2022 7:02 am

Interesting!

Seems pretty simple to circumvent if it only means that purchase within Yunnan is illegal, as suppliers of raw materials could easily sell from (either a physical presence or a company formally registered in) other provinces.
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aet
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Thu Dec 01, 2022 7:58 am

teatray wrote:
Thu Dec 01, 2022 12:31 am
(If google translator doesn't lie), seems only fresh material (seeds, seedlings, fruits, leaves, etc.) is being restricted. Not that it's a good thing, but processed tea should still be freely purchasable by anyone.
It is worth mentioning that the "Regulations" also clarify that foreigners are prohibited from collecting or purchasing ancient tea tree seeds, fruits, roots, stems, seedlings, buds, leaves, flowers and other planting or propagating materials within the administrative area of ​​Yunnan Province. It is stipulated that the forestry, grassland, agricultural and rural authorities at or above the county level will confiscate the planting materials or propagation materials of ancient tea trees collected and purchased, and may impose a fine of not less than 10,000 yuan but not more than 50,000 yuan.
yes, it is aimed on purchasing fresh stuff. but still way around as I do not pay directly for fresh leaves but pay for the fresh leaves and processing together ;-) So not really effecting my business in that matter, unless I want to pre-pay some tea trees for next year or something ( which my wife can do anyway ).
I just found it funny that they came up with this in time when " all " foreigners left and new ones not coming. So I posted it more like a fun topic rather some important news though.
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wave_code
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Thu Dec 01, 2022 12:04 pm

yeah my first thought is what foreigners are actually buying REAL 100+ year old material anyway :lol:
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debunix
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Thu Dec 01, 2022 4:10 pm

So the real aim is to preserve jobs in processing the material for Yunnan, like requiring that, instead of raw or being exploited, only the refined metal can be exported? But were there many outsiders, purchasing raw leaves directly from the farmer, and doing all the processing themselves?
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LeoFox
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Thu Dec 01, 2022 6:31 pm

debunix wrote:
Thu Dec 01, 2022 4:10 pm
So the real aim is to preserve jobs in processing the material for Yunnan, like requiring that, instead of raw or being exploited, only the refined metal can be exported? But were there many outsiders, purchasing raw leaves directly from the farmer, and doing all the processing themselves?
This assumes that laws are actually interpreted as written in China.
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aet
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Thu Dec 01, 2022 7:19 pm

I think they are just afraid that laowai would buy their old tea tress ( I believe some rich Korean did ) which is their pride. Maybe they've seen some foreigners become tea farmers here and don't want them to be owners of old tea trees. Maybe they are afraid that with popularity of puerh the foreigners would purchase seeds, tea fruits or some other living parts of the tree in order to grow it them selves,
They comment it as for the environmental protection and protection of the tea trees...whatever that means.
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