The Sudden Outbreak Of New Crown Pneumonia In Hubei Tea Enterprises

A sudden outbreak of new crown pneumonia exposed the long-standing problems of Hubei tea enterprises.

At the beginning of the year, the epidemic situation of tea picking and selling was suddenly depressed, which affected the tea production and sales. After entering June, the "super long standby" plum rainy season and continuous heavy rainfall have brought a second impact on tea planting On October 28, Zhuo wankai, chairman of Hubei Lichuan feiqiang Tea Industry Co., Ltd., admitted in an interview with reporters that during the epidemic period, the company's traditional business gift products fell by nearly 30%, especially in Wuhan by nearly 50%.

The epidemic has affected domestic tea enterprises to varying degrees. According to the semi annual report previously released, the revenue of 17 tea enterprises in China decreased by nearly 10% year-on-year, and only one enterprise had a half year income of more than 100 million yuan. Hubei enterprises were particularly damaged, for example, meilingbao fell by more than 60% year-on-year.

The good news is that things have changed a lot after the outbreak. Since then, the government has taken the lead in the recovery of tea production So says Mr. drovankai.

According to the data disclosed by Chen Xiaoyan, a first-class inspector of Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture of Hubei Province, in this year's China tea ecological special selection tea new product conference, up to now, Enshi Prefecture has achieved a tea sales revenue of 7.45 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.8%.

But deep problems still exist. For example, how to explore more suitable channels and methods of sales in the network era; how to achieve standardization and scale, and find a business model suitable for the development of modern enterprises is in front of tea enterprises, which urgently needs to be solved.

Turn around after epidemic

Hubei has been a big tea producing province in history. In recent years, Hubei tea brand image construction represented by "one red and one green" - Enshi Yulu and lichuanhong has made great progress. In 2019, the area of tea garden, the total output of tea and the export value of tea in the whole province rank fourth in China, and the total output value ranks fifth in China. The comprehensive output value of tea has exceeded 60 billion yuan. Hubei tea has excellent development foundation and conditions.

At the same time, Hubei is also recognized as the world's golden zone for tea tree growth. It is located in the Dabie Mountain in Eastern Hubei, Wuling Mountain in Western Hubei, Three Gorges in Yichang, Qinba Mountain in Northwest Hubei, Mufu mountain in South Hubei and Dahong mountain in central Hubei.

Affected by personnel flow and traffic control during the outbreak of Xinguan pneumonia, tea merchants could not normally travel to Hubei to purchase tea this year, and traditional consumption channels such as tea houses, hotels and trade markets were also under epidemic control, and tea consumption capacity decreased significantly. At the same time, the export of tea was also greatly affected. During the epidemic period, some countries imposed more stringent inspection and quarantine measures on goods, entry and exit and personnel from China. As a result, most enterprises in Hubei Province were unable to fulfill the contract or deliver goods on time, and foreign trade orders were cancelled in large numbers.

According to the investigation of "Hubei Province tea production and marketing situation report", on the one hand, tea enterprises need a lot of cash to purchase fresh leaves, pay employees' wages, operation and management expenses; on the other hand, they also need to increase the input of epidemic prevention goods, and the logistics cost has also increased significantly. However, in order to prevent financial risks, most of the banks and financial institutions do not issue loans or limit the amount of payment, leading to some tea enterprises facing difficulties in capital turnover and financing. According to preliminary statistics, since the outbreak of new crown pneumonia, the direct economic loss of tea industry in Hubei Province has reached 838 million yuan.

The epidemic is also breeding a turning point.

Under the situation that the market has not yet fully recovered, the sales volume of Hubei tea and other typical agricultural products has even exceeded the annual average through "guiding" online and targeting "docking" offline.

"As of the end of August this year, the company's sales revenue increased by 9% compared with that in 2019. The sales revenue can grow, mainly relying on consumption poverty alleviation and live delivery. By the end of August, the sales of the company's e-commerce platform (excluding 832 platform) exceeded 6 million yuan, compared with 500000 yuan in the whole year last year. "

On the other hand, after the full resumption of production and work, the Hubei provincial government has also made efforts to promote sales by organizing a number of tea expositions. Prior to this, the 21st Wuhan Tea Expo and Trade Fair was held in mid September. Under the situation of new tea gathering in spring and autumn, green tea, black tea and white tea in Hubei were sought after by tea friends, especially the "mass ration" green tea with high cost performance was snapped up; the 2020 "belt, road and one tea" Chibi green brick tea industry development conference will also be held in Chibi, Hubei Province from December 10 to 11 this year.

How to break the game?

For a long time, it is the biggest problem for tea enterprises to find a reasonable and stable business model.

In contrast with the long history of Hong Kong Tea Group (868.028) and China Tea Group (868.028), we have a long history. In the A-share market, there is no tea (traditional tea) listed companies.

Up to now, the total revenue of 17 tea enterprises that have published semi annual reports is 1.315 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 158 million yuan, and only one enterprise has a revenue of more than 100 million yuan. Among Hubei tea enterprises, meilingbao achieved an operating income of 97255207.82 yuan in the first half of 2020, with a year-on-year increase of 15.93%, and the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 4644427.08 yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 65.16%.

Hubei is rich in tea resources, and large-scale tea enterprises are also few. In the 2020 report on brand value evaluation of Chinese tea enterprises released by card China agricultural brand research center of Zhejiang University, only five tea enterprises in Hubei Province were listed.

Industry experts pointed out that Hubei is rich in tea resources, but it has been difficult to form the industry scale and effect. The brand influence and concentration degree of tea industry are very low, and the comprehensive benefit of tea is still a pain point in the development of Hubei tea industry. The traditional production and processing mode has limited the production capacity of tea enterprises, and also produced a large number of small and medium-sized tea enterprises. On the other hand, China's tea is a product with strong regional characteristics, and there has always been a contradiction between specialization and broadness. Generally speaking, the main income of tea enterprises comes from the famous and high-quality tea in the region. However, the production capacity of famous and high-quality tea is often limited in a very small geographical area. This is a problem that is difficult to solve with investment and restricts the development of Hubei tea enterprises Scale.

Well known teas in Hubei Province, such as Enshi Yulu, Caihua Maojian and Lichuan red, are mostly focused on green tea or black tea, and the overall income scale is relatively small. In this regard, Zhuo wankai thinks: "there are few large-scale tea enterprises in Hubei Province, mainly because the cultivation of leading enterprises is not enough. With weak brand influence and few channels, it is impossible to achieve scale in sales revenue. "

In fact, many tea enterprises have been actively exploring more sales channels and ways to reduce the impact of the epidemic. After experiencing the baptism of the epidemic situation, Zhuo wankai also realized the importance of brand power. "The reason why the" Shuangpin (quality, brand) online shopping festival "can choose" Xingdoushan lichuanhong "is not only the policy factors that help Hubei to revive after the epidemic, but also the role of the brand. For the future development of enterprises, we also have a grand goal, which is to become the first brand of black tea in China by 2027. " In the first ten days of October, Zhuo wankai launched 50 door advertisements with a total value of more than 10 million yuan on Beijing metro lines 1, 2, 6 and 10.

However, at present, such as feiqiang tea industry with a certain scale of tea enterprises is still a small number. The domestic tea industry has been criticized for its category but no brand. The tea industry is still in the stage of manual and non-standard agricultural products. With the change of traditional consumption concept, China's tea industry is also ushering in a new round of brand development opportunities. There are more and more new and old tea brands in the industry, such as small pot tea, Bama tea, etc. they are trying to change the status quo of domestic tea industry with categories but no brands. It is also hoped that they can bring some new changes to the backward domestic tea industry.

"What leading enterprises want to support most is brand and channel construction." Zhuo wankai said. For the future development of Hubei tea enterprises, Zhuo wankai suggested: "we have been calling for the establishment of a special fund for tea industry development to support leading enterprises in the form of investment rights and investment. The support focus of financial funds should also be shifted from the production side to the consumer side, highlighting brand and channel construction."

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