A thoughtful question came from the Discord Server about the last blog post:
"In the post, you mentioned that more and more younger folks are involved in the tea industry, and you also mentioned that prices on the premium/organic side are increasing. Have you happened to notice any correlation between those two trends (either on the “young people are more involved in production” and/or “young people are more involved in consumption” sides)? The feedback loops between the costs well-off folks are willing to pay, the general inflation that results, and the increasing operational costs to support workers so they can survive said inflation are interesting to think about, so I’m mostly curious if you’ve gathered any insight into such dynamics in the Taiwanese market." @yaywombat
Great questions and one that I think has a similar answer to many other agricultural industries. In general, the more young people get involved the more beautiful the presentation of the tea, the cleaner the tea gets, the more markets the tea gets exposed to through better marketing and the more the price rises(usually temporarily). The quality of the tea sometimes changes slightly, but in general it stays pretty stable. I would guess these trends are mostly universal in the agricultural industries of the developed world at this point.
**(An important point to keep in mind is that the Taiwanese Tea Industry is mostly made up of small farms whose labor is mostly local and within the family. There are exceptions to this but we do not deal with those companies and they are a minor, if growing, part of the industry. 'Workers' in this context are usually family or close to it.)
It seems the heart of the question is aimed the global cost of living crisis and how Taiwanese tea families are dealing with it. Unfortunately, and not uniquely, the answer to that question is currently not very pleasant. The younger generations are having a very hard time finding their way in the increasingly bifurcated market of premium vs cheap tea. Only the very best of both extremes are doing well while the center ground is getting squeezed. And with the growing mechanization of the Taiwanese tea industry that middle ground will be even more displaced.
A couple of anecdotes to describe the point:
An older Master Tea Maker’s son grew up with tea, got good at making it and won a competition as the best young Tea Master in Taiwan. Tried to make a career of it, but gave up when he didn’t see a future for himself. He also didn’t want to put in the 24-48 hours of constant work each harvest as he couldn't see himself making enough to have his own farm due to inflation. He now has a small shop and sells the tea his aging father makes at a premium and does not make his own tea. When his father passes, who knows if he will take the family business or not.
A Tea Master took over from his father in a kind of ‘coup’ and convinced the area to stop using pesticides and herbicides. For a couple years they almost went out of business but once they figured out the volume and created a market they were able to sell clean tea at a premium and their business has flourished. The other, older, tea producers in the area that did not evolve to pass the agrochemical ’tests’ for tea either went out of business or leased their land to others.
A good friend is now all over Facebook with advertising as his daughter has tried to get involved with the family business selling tea at a premium online. I talked with him at the recent show and it hasn’t really increased sales. A little, but not enough to change their regular way of doing things. But at least family is getting involved.
At the tea shows I tend to avoid booths with slick, fashionable young people. Not a value judgment, I want them to succeed, but it isn’t worth my time for the business that I run. The premiums are just too high. Unfortunately I often only see a group at one or two shows before they disappear. This type of attempt at 'value add' seems to be increasing in frequency.
The other part of your question is about the tea consumption of young people here in Taiwan and I will write a blog post about that later. I kind of see myself as a bridge in that respect. Not many young Taiwanese drink high quality tea and the gap between generations is very large. The tea drinking culture is so different!(Bubble milk tea vs after dinner gong fu for example) I am working on a way to bridge that gap as I tend to get along with both groups as a ‘3rd culture’ tea drinker. Setting up a brick and mortar, or in this case wood and stone, shop this fall will be my chance to get some of those ideas moving. There are not many younger Taiwanese drinking 'Slow Tea'.
The ‘middle squeeze’ dynamic is alive and strong in the tea industry of Taiwan. We will all have to navigate these economic conditions for the next couple years. At Mountain Stream Teas we will be trying to mindfully support our friends that are making clean, healthy great tasting tea.
Thank you very much for the questions that came in from the Discord server. This type of stuff helps a lot for the upcoming book!
-Matt
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