On March 8, Suzhou City announced a regulation for the protection of Biluochun tea that originates from the Dongting Mountain region.
The regulation, passed by the Standing Committee of the Suzhou Municipal People’s Congress and approved by the Standing Committee of the Jiangsu Provincial People’s Congress, will come into force on September 1.
This marks Jiangsu's first legislative action on tea and the first local law to regulate the development of a region-based agricultural brand and a geographical indication (GI) product.
Xie Tianhan from the Legal Affairs Committee of the city’s legislature said the set of rules include developing a digital system to ensure the traceability management and authenticity checks.
Additionally, tea business operators are required to clearly indicate the origin of the tea and the information of the producer when selling Biluochun tea from the Dongting Mountain region, enabling customers to distinguish it from Biluochun tea from other regions.
Biluochun tea from Dongting Lake, one of the country's top ten famous tea, boasts a long history. The processing technique has been recognized as a national intangible cultural heritage. The farming method of combining Biluochun tea plants and fruit trees was inscribed on the list of China's Important Agricultural Cultural Heritage issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. Then in 2022, the item "Traditional tea processing techniques and associated social practices in China," which includes Biluochun, was inscribed on the Representative List of the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
