Fuding Burns Over 500 Tonnes of Soaked Tea, Chao News Says
More than 500 tonnes of flood-soaked tea had been burned in Fuding by 9 September, Chao News reported, after Typhoon Saudel's rains flooded Diantou town.
More than 500 tonnes (about 550 US tons) of flood-soaked tea had been burned in Fuding, Fujian, by 9 September, Chao News reported. The outlet put the tea affected across Fuding at more than 700 tonnes, over 600 of them in Diantou town.
Chao News reported that rainstorms under Typhoon Saudel ran from the night of 31 August to 2 September, and that Diantou recorded 331.2 millimetres (about 13 inches) of rain in six hours. Qianjiang Evening News reported water up to 3 metres (about 10 feet) deep in the town.
The burning began on 5 September. China News Service reported that nearly 10 tonnes, worth about 2 million yuan (about US$300,000), were destroyed in Diantou that afternoon as a first batch.
A Diantou tea merchant told Chao News that soaked white tea ferments, smells and grows mold.
Wu Anshou of the Wu Antai tea shop told China News Service that much of the shop's silver needle and bai mudan was fully soaked and would all be destroyed. Zhou Ruirong of Fuding Shenmiao Tea Co. said that quality mattered most and that even slightly wet tea would all be disposed of, the agency reported.
Small and mid-size merchants in Diantou generally had not insured their shops or stock, Chao News reported. Another merchant told the outlet that fresh tea comes every year, but aged stock lost to the flood cannot be replaced.
The Fuding Tea Industry Association said on 6 September that damaged tea must not be sold. A city tea official told China News Service that Fuding will step up market inspections and use its white tea traceability system.
Sources: Chao News, 特稿丨洪水退去，福鼎焚茶; China News Service, “中国白茶之乡”福鼎销毁“泡水茶”：不让一片问题叶子流入市场; Qianjiang Evening News via Shanghai Observer, Qianjiang Evening News report, 5 September 2026
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