After the Qingming Festival, a large number of spring teas are on the market. When purchasing, consumers will not only pay attention to the origin and time of release of tea, but also look at the packaging. Recently, the China Consumers Association and the China Tea Circulation Association jointly issued a proposal for "Advocating Moderate Packaging of Tea to Promote Green and Civilized Consumption", opposing excessive packaging of tea, regulating the production of tea products according to law and promoting the development of the tea industry to meet the needs of consumers.
The China Consumers Association's "Research on Commodity Excessive Packaging and Consumer Perception Survey Report" (hereinafter referred to as the "Survey") shows that consumers highly support the current relevant departments to formulate standards for edible agricultural products, tea, toys, baby products, and electronic products. Excessive packaging is restricted for such commodities. Consumers are highly concerned about the problem of excessive packaging of tea, and 40.7% of consumers think that there is a suspected problem of excessive packaging. The "Survey" also found that the main functional requirements of consumers for tea packaging are: "guarantee the quality of tea, prevent moisture and deterioration" (76.9%), "good storage performance after opening" (75.8%), "easy to use " (62.5%).
Tea, like moon cakes, has the attribute of "gift giving", so it is the hardest hit area for excessive packaging. The "Survey" found that the proportions of consumers who choose luxury packaging for gifts from close to far are 5.4%, 11.8%, and 52.9%, indicating that the farther the relationship between the gift giver and the recipient is, the more utilitarian it is. The higher the proportion of luxury packaging. However, when the consumers interviewed find that the gift is an over-packaged product, 66.0% of the interviewees feel "wasteful", and 37.0% of the interviewees said that "there is a big psychological gap before and after opening the package, and the experience is not good". only 25.4% of the respondents think that "the gift giver is careful". It shows that consumers have more negative experiences than positive ones when they receive gifts that are over-packaged.
It can be seen that the high added value generated by excessive tea packaging is not worthwhile for buyers, whether it is from the perspective of consumers’ main functional requirements for tea packaging or from the psychology of respondents who received gifts. Instead of paying high prices for packaging and "face", it is better to pursue the quality of the tea itself, and a good inside is more beneficial to tea drinkers. The China Consumers Association and the China Tea Marketing Association also advocate "appropriate packaging of tea and promotion of green and civilized consumption". Continue to improve product innovation and research and development capabilities and production technology levels, and provide consumers with more categories and specifications of healthy and nutritious tea products. In terms of tea packaging, tea operators should ensure appropriate packaging materials , optimized structure, appropriate materials, harmless processing, and green production according to the requirements of different tea categories, brands, varieties, and quality. Advocate tea business operators to publicize the energy efficiency, water efficiency, environmental performance, carbon emissions and other information of the whole production chain of tea raw material production, processing and packaging, etc., for consumers to choose and social supervision.
On September 2, 2021, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued the mandatory national standard GB 23350-2021 "Restricting Excessive Packaging Requirements for Commodities and Cosmetics", which will be implemented in September 2023. The new standard covers 31 categories of food and 16 categories of cosmetics, including tea, alcohol, etc., and sets a two-year transition period for enterprises and markets. The new standard clarifies that the volume of food or cosmetic contents is expressed by multiplying the net content by the necessary space coefficient, and the value of the necessary space coefficient depends on the product. The new standard clearly stipulates the number of layers of packaging, packaging costs, etc.: grain and its processed products should not exceed three layers, and other commodities should not exceed four layers; production organizations should take measures to control The cost of all other packaging shall not exceed 20% of the sales price of the product.
The China Consumers Association hopes that the relevant departments can fully consider the reasonable demands of consumers in the process of formulating relevant standards, so that the product packaging is environmentally friendly and simple, close to the actual needs of life, and can also protect consumers' right to know; it is recommended that when formulating tea packaging standards, Refer to the requirements of the new standard for moon cakes and rice dumplings in terms of packaging layers, packaging cost ratio, and packaging materials. Considering that the minimum weight of a single small package should not be lower than the amount of tea brewed at one time, companies are encouraged to provide at least one small package with a transparent window. The packaging allows consumers to see the quality of the tea; it is suggested that when formulating the standards for the packaging of edible agricultural products, it is recommended to set up a transparent skylight on the packaging or to see the goods when the packaging is not damaged, so that consumers can accurately understand the quality and maturity of agricultural products. Protect consumers' right to know, so that consumers can buy with confidence.
The author believes that with the implementation of national standards and the continuous popularization of the concept of "environmental protection", the tea market will develop in the direction of "emphasizing the inside and ignoring the face", with more transparent prices, more assured consumption, and more environmentally friendly packaging.
