China News Service, Kunming, April 24 (Miao Chao). Recently, a 10 kg fresh leaf mining right of a 3200-year-old tea tree in Lincang, Yunnan was auctioned for 10.68 million yuan (RMB, the same below).

"Sky-price" Pu'er tea is not uncommon in recent years, and there is a history of nearly 20 years of hype behind it.

A reporter from China News Agency interviewed many people in the Pu'er tea industry in an attempt to uncover the price secret behind the "high price" of Pu'er tea.

　　In mid-2020, the young Pu'er tea merchant Dao Wenxing (a pseudonym) set off from his hometown of Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, to Fangcun, Guangzhou, known as the "Tea Wall Street".

Pu'er tea has become a "myth" here.

　　"Fangcun Tea Market is like a stock market, with codes, indices, K-lines, open positions, short positions, futures..." Dao Wenxing said that the daily price of hundreds of Pu'er teas fluctuates from several hundred to several hundred thousand yuan. .

　　"This is a big bet. If you win the gambling, you will earn millions a day; if you lose the gambling, you will lose your wife." Dao Wenxing said after nearly a year of "stir-fry tea" in Fangcun. Pu'er tea experienced a round of bubbles in 2007. It broke, and countless people went bankrupt in an instant.

"In March of this year, the market also saw a case where futures speculators were unable to pay for the goods due to the skyrocketing price of tea and were sentenced to 40 million yuan in compensation."

　　Pu'er tea is produced in Yunnan Province in southwest China. For thousands of years, it has been sold to mainland China, Tibet, and even Southeast Asia and South Asia through the ancient tea-horse road.

In the 1990s, the main producers of Pu'er tea were state-owned tea factories in Yunnan. As state-owned tea factories closed down one after another due to operating difficulties, Pu'er tea was once silent on China's huge tea landscape.

　　At the beginning of this century, a large number of Hong Kong and Taiwan businessmen went to the mainland to do business and set up factories, bringing the habit of drinking Pu'er and treasured Pu'er.

The more aging the Pu'er tea is, the more fragrant it is, which gives it the possibility of appreciation in its collection.

Since 2003, under the operation of Hong Kong and Taiwan Capital, with Guangzhou Fangcun as the center, the curtain of Pu'er tea marketing has been opened.

　　Over the years, driven by investors, distributors, and trading platforms, Pu'er tea has evolved into a financial product in Fangcun, stage after round of "the tea market is also crazy".

　　Following Fangcun’s “financial tea”, Pu’er tea derived the concept of “old tree tea” and “shantou tea” in 2009, and the price was high due to scarcity of resources.

In recent years, most of the "expensive" Pu'er tea incidents that have appeared repeatedly are speculations on ancient tree tea and Shantou tea.

　　Since being hyped up, the Pu'er tea market has been oversupply.

According to data from the China Tea Circulation Association, the output of Pu'er tea in 2019 was 155,000 tons, the domestic sale was 105,500 tons, and the export was 2,786 tons, which means that about 47,000 tons of Pu'er tea were piled in warehouses that year.

　　Li Yilin, the founder of the Xishuangbanna tea brand Ji Shengxiang, said that the stock of Pu'er tea has accumulated over the years, and I am afraid that no one can keep statistics.

"In Yunnan and Guangdong's major tea cities and the surrounding areas, people who hide more than a dozen tons of Pu'er tea grab a lot."

　　It is strange that the stock of Pu'er tea is huge, but the price is still rising.

Li Yilin revealed that in order to show that Pu'er tea is more aging and fragrant, the price of old tea will rise a little every year, at least to maintain the original price. "Anyway, it can't fall. This is the consensus of big and small brands, and it is also the hidden rule of Pu'er tea."

　　He explained that Pu'er tea brand tea emphasizes product lines, and a certain product is passed on year after year.

Each brand has its own star product, even if the sales volume is not good, they still do it every year, which is an important source of inventory.

　　Once the price drops, the more aging and the more fragrant ≠ the more aging and the more expensive, Pu'er tea will lose its investment value.

Li Yilin told reporters, "If there is no such thing as an appreciation of Tibetan tea, it will be a disaster for Pu'er tea."

　　In recent years, Pu'er tea has repeatedly sold sky-high prices to drive market investment in new teas, forming a situation where the value of old teas such as keeping new teas, drinking mid-term teas, and other old teas appreciated.

Li Yilin said that even if the major tea merchants have more stocks, the price of tea can only go high. "The price of Pu'er tea has been arrogantly high in this way."

　　Some tea people said that Pu'er tea is like beer, it needs foam.

But the bubble will burst someday.

　　In the opinion of many Pu'er tea industry insiders interviewed by the reporter, sky-high prices and inflated prices are an irrational and unsustainable phenomenon, which will seriously disrupt the order of the tea market circulation, and is not conducive to the healthy, stable and orderly development of the tea market.

　　“Most of the high-priced tea is just a gimmick. Some tea companies rely on speculating on the high price to gain fame and selling ordinary tea." Huang Huahua, head of the tea business department of Yunnan Nuomi Lu, said that the constantly fried high-priced tea has given the image of the Pu'er tea industry. Cause bad effects.

"Ordinary consumers are frightened by the sky-high prices, and gradually develop a sense of distance from Pu'er tea."

　　Changjiang Yongwen, deputy director of the Tea Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said that the buyers of high-priced Pu'er tea are firstly people with extremely high consumption power, secondly are speculative writers, and thirdly, gift-giver "those who buy do not drink, those who drink do not "Buy", this type of consumption is likely to breed unhealthy trends such as official corruption.

　　Jiang Yongwen believes that the Pu'er tea industry needs to develop rationally and healthily, and the government should strengthen supervision to resist excessive speculation in the market for Pu'er tea.

"Using tea as a financial tool will cause instability in the tea industry and affect the sustainable and healthy development of tea farmers and tea enterprises."

　　Yao Jingbo, vice president of the China Tea Circulation Association, told reporters that the association issued a proposal not long ago, advocating that all tea production and operation enterprises and practitioners consciously resist high-priced tea, excessive packaging, exaggerated propaganda, etc., and actively report the relevant Illegal behavior. "(Finish)