Chinese entrepreneur An Yanshi is convinced he has
found the key ingredient to produce the world's most expensive tea
-- panda poo.
The former calligraphy teacher has purchased 11 tonnes of
excrement from a panda breeding centre to fertilise a tea crop in
the mountains of Sichuan province in southwestern China, home to
the black and white bears.
An says he will harvest the first batch of tea leaves this
spring and it will be the "world's most expensive tea" at almost
220,000 yuan ($35,000) for 500 grams (18 ounces).
Chinese tea drinkers regard the first batch of tea to be
harvested in the early spring as the best and successive batches,
regarded as inferior, will sell for around 20,000 yuan.
The 41-year-old, who is so passionate about his new project he
dressed in a panda suit for his interview with AFP, has been
ridiculed by some in China for his extravagant claims of the
potential health benefits of the tea.
But he insists he is deadly serious, saying he quit his job at
Sichuan University to throw himself "heart and soul" into his
company, Panda Tea, whose logo features a smiling panda wearing a
bow tie and holding a steaming glass of green tea.
While An hopes to make money from the tea, which he has planted
on just over a hectare (2.5 acres) of land, his main mission is to
convince the world to protect the environment and replace chemical
fertilisers with animal faeces -- before it is too late.
"Panda dung is rich in nutrition... and should be much better
than chemical fertilisers," An told AFP, as he sat at a traditional
Chinese tea table drinking tea grown with cow manure.
"People should make a harmonious relationship with heaven, earth
and the environment," An said.
"Everybody has an obligation to protect the environment," he
added, as he showed AFP dozens of traditional Chinese scroll
paintings that he has created of cheerful-looking pandas, bamboo
and calligraphy.
The tea aficionado got the idea to use panda faeces as
fertiliser after attending a seminar last year where he discovered
that the bears absorbed less than 30 percent of the bamboo they
consumed, excreting the remaining 70 percent.
An showed AFP a glass jar of fresh-looking panda faeces, which
he uses to fertilise two tea plants in his office, noting the
"quality" and "green" colour of the dung.
He is so convinced that Panda Tea will be a hit that he has
patented the idea to prevent a competitor stealing it -- a common
occurrence in a country where laws protecting intellectual property
rights are often flouted.
His claim that the green tea will help people lose weight and
protect them from radiation has been ridiculed by some Chinese web
users, who have expressed doubts about the purported health
benefits of the tea and the high asking price for the first
harvest.
"If it is such a good fertiliser for tea plants, I want to ask
this teacher: why don't you just eat panda dung? Then you can get
the rest of the 70 percent nutrition," a web user called Baihuashu
said.
Another web user called 24-0 said: "Over 200,000 yuan per jin
(500 grams) for panda tea fertilised by panda droppings -- is that
for drinking tea or drinking pandas' blood?"
Despite the online detractors of his yet-to-be-tested tea, An
said he remained undeterred and was already thinking about
expanding his business.
"After the first batch is harvested, if the quality is really
good, we will expand the economies of scale," said An, waving his
panda paws for emphasis.
