Abstract: China started its organic tea production in early 1990s. Organic tea was growing very fast as it generated more incomes, provided more employment opportunities,contributed to an ecological sound future for humanity and made the agriculture more sustainable. Organic tea has become a major item of Chinese organic products. In 2000, acreage devoted to organic tea reached 10,000 hectares yielding 4,500 tons, 10 times higher than that in 1997 in terms of total acreage and yield. About 2,500 tons of total production was exported while 2,000 tons went to domestic consumers. Tea Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences has already worked on the research and development of organic tea. It has had full departments covering all aspects of tea sciences and technology. There have been nearly 100 certified organic tea farms in China. Certification has been done by the Organic Tea Research and Development Centre (OTRDC),and Tea Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. The OTRDC has developed the standards for organic tea based on the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movement (IFOAM) basic standards, which has officially become Zhejiang provincial standards and will become national standards by the end of 2001. Further research and development in the aspects of production, marketing and technology dissemination were discussed by the authors in order to expand the organic production on larger areas under different agronomic and ecological conditions, so as to achieve higher level of productivity.

Key words: Organic tea China Research and development Organic agriculture Organic farming