The COVID-19 Pandemic is continuing to spread across the globe, even now in late 2022. It’s unclear how long the Pandemic will last although much of the tea industry has started to recover.

In this article, we’ll be looking back to 2020, when the tea harvest in China was greatly affected by the pandemic. We reached out to Chinese tea producers and distributors to see how the industry was affected.

The 2020 Tea Harvest (& COVID)

The big question we had is what effects will the COVID-19 virus have on the tea industry? Beyond the obvious issues of:

Health
Global Economies
and Shipping

There’s a lot to keep in mind about how, when, and why this global pandemic impacted China’s 2020 tea harvest. While there are changes and effects being felt in other major tea markets, such as:

Japan
India
Taiwan

We’ll be focusing primarily on the Chinese Tea market in this article to keep things more focused.

The 2020 Tea Harvest Disruption

The Coronavirus outbreak first reached international headlines in late December of 2019 and was named a global Pandemic by March 11th, 2020. For the tea industry, the timing couldn’t have been worse. Typically tea harvesting takes place in late March and early April which means producers need to prepare in advance. This includes:

Hiring,
On-boarding,
And training the migrant workers who travel in to pluck the fields.

Tea picking relies heavily on these workers… without them, the buds stay on the trees. Tea leaves don’t wait – they have to be plucked when they’re ready. The tea world operates on the tea’s time, not ours.

How Shortages Occur

Any disruption in this timeline, especially labor shortages, can mean that tea simply doesn’t get picked. This is the reason coronavirus hit at a bad time for tea producers. If they don’t have everything and everyone prepared, in the months leading up to tea season which means by February or early March...the tea may not get picked.

Less picking means less tea.
Less tea means less to sell.
Less tea to sell usually means higher prices.

Put Simply...

COVID-19 hit at a critical time for tea producers – right when important decisions needed to be made. To make things worse, travel restrictions may make hiring seasonal labor difficult. If workers can’t travel to pick tea before it buds, the trees and bushes will go unpicked, and less tea will be produced this year.

The Good News

But there’s some good news, as COVID-19 made its way across the globe, it started to slow down in China. This was a good sign for tea production overall but there were definitely a few impacts that this virus may have on the 2020 spring tea harvest that are worth noting. We spoke to our tea-producing friends in China and asked them what they’re seeing right now, as the spring tea season begins.

3 Impacts of the Corona Virus on Tea Season

Overall, there seem to be 3 main ways COVID-19 is impacting the spring 2020 tea season in China:

Labor Shortages
Changes in the global economy
Reduced Output and Processing Delays

1. Labor Shortages

We spoke to Paul, the owner of White2Tea, who specializes in Pu Er and other teas from Yunnan. He mentioned labor Shortages as a potential major issue facing tea picking in Yunnan this spring:

“A lot of tea pickers in China are not local. They are seasonal workers who travel from nearby provinces and countries.

With the turmoil surrounding the virus, travel and migrant work populations will be heavily affected.”

Simply put: If seasonal workers can’t travel to tea-picking regions then the budding tea will go unpicked. Meaning, less tea will be processed or available to the consumer.

2. Changes in the Global Economy

With the global economy at risk because of the COVID-19 outbreak… Many businesses and people around the world will be greatly affected financially. This economic uncertainty Paired with disrupted supply chains is bound to impact all levels of the tea industry as well:

From tea pickers and farmers
To large tea corporations.
To the average consumer.

COVID-19 also meant that a number of tea businesses (including Ooika!) were unable to travel to China or Japan to meet with farmers, places orders in person, and continue to network.

3. Reduced Output and Processing Delays

Reduced output and delays could also be an issue for some Chinese tea-producing regions this year but this may have a lot more to do with Climate change then it does with COVID-19.

According to Jonah Synder, one of the owners of Bitterleaf Teas:

“The weather [in Yunnan] is actually having a bigger impact on picking and production this year [...] similar to 2019, it's been a very dry spring and trees have been budding quite late, with lower yields.”

Decreased yields - from the weather or labor shortages can lead to higher prices and more competition.

Simply put: we could have less tea sold at higher prices.

The 2020 Tea Harvest: Was there Tea?

Yes, there was a tea harvest in 2020, but it was a challenge for the producers. There seemed to be a reduction in the amount of product that made it to market — and those challenges continue to last up until today in 2022. Overall, there didn’t seem to be any direct shortage — but the biggest issue has been tea shops (such as Ooika) and our ability to go to China and Japan to sample new product.

Was the 2020 COVID-19 Tea safe to Drink?

You may have heard that the Coronavirus can survive for weeks on some surfaces. To make matters worse, the disease can also stay “alive” up to 2 years in a frozen environment, such as a freezer. If you read our ‘What is Matcha’ article, then you already know most Tencha (unground matcha) is frozen for years before grinding.

So that begs an important question: was it safe to drink tea from China or Japan during the pandemic? Especially if, in theory, the virus could get on the dried leaf and survive. Well, in short: yes, it was safe to drink the tea.

Before I get in to why, let me just note that I’m not a doctor. I’m a tea drinker. So… if you’ve got serious worries direct your questions to someone with a PhD. Anyhow… The way the Corona Virus is RNA inside a Lipid shell. Lipids… are fats. As the fat melts, a Virus destabilizes. It’s one of the reasons that the Virus does not thrive in very hot or humid environments such as Africa or India. You can learn more about that in this video below:

With this in mind, if a Virus managed to stay alive from an infected tea plantation Then the boiling water would vaporize the virus. It’s also worth noting, that according to the FDA:

“There’s no evidence that the virus can be transmitted through goods imported from China.”

While anything is possible, this really isn’t something you need to worry about.

Is Tea Antiviral?

Interestingly enough, scientists are currently studying the antiviral properties of compounds in tea. Scientists in Taiwan have discovered that theaflavin, a polyphenolic compound in tea… Shows antiviral activity against multiple viruses. (Polyphenols are nutrients responsible for health-promoting properties)

This research could help scientists develop what’s called an “inhibitor.” Or, a compound that prevents viruses from taking over a cell and this is pretty cool news. Tea potentially holds a power to help further science and its fight against COVID-19. But this is not to say tea will help you at all if you are sick, or are worried about becoming sick.

Wash your hands!

Also, one quick thing: We wrote an article on if drinking tea helps with the Coronavirus, here.

COVID-19 Impacts in Other Tea Producing Countries

Taiwan

Taiwan seemed largely unaffected as far as their 2020 tea season, and the virus was largely under control there. Meaning the picking and processing of Taiwanese teas was largely unaffected that season. We caught up with Stephane Erler, owner of the Taiwanese based shop, Tea-Masters, and he said:

“The biggest impact on the tea won't come from the production, but from the sales. The virus is preventing overseas buyers from coming to Taiwan right now.

Local sellers will have an advantage this year…

The sale of tea to Mainland China, a big market for Taiwan's premium teas, will likely be reduced, because of the economic slowdown and because Chinese tourists are shut out of Taiwan.”

India

India, one of the world’s leading tea producers, faced a lot of uncertainty that year as well. The country was on lockdown… which impacted the ability for workers to pick and process large quantities of tea, overall, production in the country was predicted to fall by 100 million kg.

Buyers of Indian teas won’t be able to travel there either so tea sales from international companies will probably be affected. Some Tea Gardens asked the government for permission to work through the lockdown. At the time it was unclear if they would be allowed to continue picking.

Final Takeaways

Plain and simple, the 2020 tea season in China was affected by COVID-19, as were the 2021 and 2022 seasons. We’re still not sure how future harvests will be affected — as at the time of writing this it’s stiff difficult to get into countries such as Japan and China.

This has made acquiring products like the Tencha we grind into our Matcha difficult (but by no means impossible!) In fact, you can browse our shop to experience our fresh, in-house stone-milled Matcha.

It’s still not clear what Covid did to affect the tea industry, but things look to be returning to normalcy.

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