Cooperative Makes Better
The Tea of East, the tea is from the East, dedicates ourselves to providing world with exquisite Chinese tea and edible agricultural products.
In China, The Tea of East endeavors to discover a development paradigm that most favors farmers and bolsters environmental conservation. The cooperative model we currently advocate involves co-ownership of shares by The Tea of East and the farmers — a partnership where risks are shared. The Tea of East offers both agricultural expert and financial support to elevate the efficiency of agricultural production and enhance the quality of the products, ensuring every product meet the high standard of The Tea of East.
Wang Zhonghua and Zhang Shimei are the most emblematic Longjing tea farmers in Hangzhou, having cultivated tea for over three decades. Previously, tea cultivation provided them with a modest livelihood. Located in the core production area of West Lake Longjing, their tea gardens yield fresh leaves that are sold to factories for processing, or they process a small amount of Longjing tea themselves and sell it to tourists.
They never envisioned owning a tea brand or profiting from it. Eight Longjing tea farmers, including Wang Zhonghua and Zhang Shimei, have joined The Tea of East`s Longjing tea Cooperative. The cooperative receives 20% of the profits from The Tea of East's Longjing products. By bypassing the numerous links in traditional tea trade, our products are 30%-50% cheaper than other brands. This is a win-win situation. Consumers can enjoy more affordable products, and tea farmers can reap greater benefits.
Furthermore, we engage closely with local communities by implementing educational initiatives that impart to farmers the methods of amalgamating local wisdom with cutting-edge science to refine agricultural practices. We are convinced that enriching the knowledge and skills of farmers is pivotal to augment the quality of life within the entire agricultural community.
In addition to annual dividends from the cooperative, each farmer collaborating with The Tea of East also enjoys a profit share from every product sold, diverging from conventional procurement methods. Here, farmers directly reap from the profits of the end product sales rather than solely from selling their own produce, which increases their income and integrates them into the entire value chain of the tea brand.
We have professionals who regularly instruct cooperative members in the concept of ecological planting, a principle our brand has always upheld. Environmentally friendly and ecologically friendly, we require tea farmers to minimize the use of pesticides and employ ecological methods to control pests during the planting process. In the processing phase, traditional charcoal fire for heating is minimized and clean energy sources are used instead.
Our cooperative’s ethos emphasizes environmental preservation and ecological agriculture, which entails employing organic farming techniques, reducing chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and other eco-friendly agricultural practices, thus ensuring the land's enduring fertility and ecological balance.
By increasing farmers’ income, protecting environment, enhancing product quality, and incorporating consumers as participants in ecological protection, we foster a virtuous cycle of production, sale, and consumption. We firmly believe that everyone's contribution is invaluable, and each small step will significantly advance global sustainable agricultural development.
At present, The Tea of East operates exclusively in the realms of tea and edible agricultural goods, and we are attempting to expand into additional sectors.To protect the environment, assist farmers, achieve sustainable agriculture, and involve consumers in ecological participation are the lifelong aspirations and objectives of our brand.