Green tea export unit values from China, 2015–2025

China’s green tea exports came to an average unit value of US$3.46 per kg in 2025: US$1,306.7 million declared for 377,120 tonnes under HS 0902.10 and 0902.20, according to The Tea Trade’s calculation from China’s declarations to UN Comtrade. Green tea in immediate packings of 3 kg or less had a unit value of US$4.27 per kg and green tea in larger packings US$2.96. The average for all destinations rose from US$3.80 in 2015 to US$4.86 in 2021 and fell back, but without Hong Kong, Malaysia and Vietnam it stayed between US$3.30 and US$3.62 in every year with reported quantities. These are unit values computed from customs declarations, not prices.

What a green tea export unit value measures

A unit value is the declared value of a trade flow divided by its quantity. The UN’s recommendations for trade statistics (IMTS 2010) treat it as a check on the value data, and each part of the division has a precise meaning:

• Value. China records its exports at their free-on-board (FOB) value, 离岸价格, according to its National Bureau of Statistics. An FOB-type value is the transaction value of the goods plus the cost of bringing them to the exporting country’s border (IMTS 2010), so freight and insurance to the destination are not in it.
• Quantity. The quantity is the net weight in kilograms, and net weight excludes packaging (IMTS 2010).
• Code. HS 0902.10 covers green tea in immediate packings of a content not exceeding 3 kg, and 0902.20 all other green tea (World Customs Organization). In China’s tariff the two subheadings also hold scented tea (花茶), split in 2023 into jasmine tea (茉莉花茶) and other scented tea, and white tea (白茶), which has had lines of its own since 2023, as our guide to tea HS codes explains.
• Side of the trade. The figures below are China’s own declarations, as published by UN Comtrade through the World Bank’s WITS service. Most importing countries record their imports at CIF value, freight and insurance included (IMTS 2010), so their figures for the same tea differ.

A unit value is therefore an average over every shipment, grade and type of tea declared under one code in one year. It is not a price, and it says nothing about any particular lot.

Chinese green tea export unit values by pack size, 2015–2025

China’s green tea exports by pack size, 2015–2025 (value in US$ thousand, quantity in tonnes; source: UN Comtrade via WITS, China’s declarations; unit value = value ÷ quantity, The Tea Trade’s calculation)

A value in US$ thousand divided by a quantity in tonnes gives US$ per kg directly: 621,758 ÷ 145,506 = 4.27. Some quantities from 2017 on include UN Comtrade estimates, listed under the gaps in the data below.

Tea in packs of 3 kg or less had the higher unit value in every year with data, by 27.5% in 2023 to 67.1% in 2020 (The Tea Trade’s calculation). Both series peaked in 2021, at US$6.16 and US$4.03 per kg, and stood at US$4.27 and US$2.96 in 2025. Over the decade, larger packings grew from 137,673 to 231,614 tonnes while packs of 3 kg or less moved from 140,515 to 145,506 tonnes, so small packs fell from 50.5% to 38.6% of China’s green tea by weight. Because larger packings carry the lower unit value, that shift alone pulls the overall average down.

There is no reliable unit value by pack size for 2016. UN Comtrade flags China’s 2016 quantities for both subheadings as estimated, and they give every destination taking 10 tonnes or more the same unit value: US$648.7 million ÷ 36,715 tonnes = US$17.67 per kg for small packs, and US$463.9 million ÷ 58,058 tonnes = US$7.99 for larger packings. The monthly tea report of China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM, 商务部), which groups tea by customs code, does have a 2016 figure for its green tea group: US$1,064.8 million for 270,859 tonnes, a unit value of US$3.93 per kg (The Tea Trade’s calculation).

In MOFCOM’s code lists, that group covers only the “other green tea” lines, 0902.1090 and 0902.2090 (which held white tea until it got lines of its own in 2023), and it traces the same rise and fall: US$1,005.4 million ÷ 272,146 tonnes = US$3.69 per kg in 2015, US$1,487.5 million ÷ 312,264 tonnes = US$4.76 in 2021 and US$1,242.8 million ÷ 368,986 tonnes = US$3.37 in 2025 (The Tea Trade’s calculation from MOFCOM’s December reports).

Why the average peaked in 2021: Hong Kong, Malaysia and Vietnam

China’s green tea exports, all destinations and without Hong Kong, Malaysia and Vietnam, 2015–2025 (HS 0902.10 and 0902.20; value in US$ thousand, quantity in tonnes; source: UN Comtrade via WITS; The Tea Trade’s calculation)

2016 is left out because its quantities are estimates; later estimates are listed under the gaps in the data. Rounded figures may not add up exactly.

Three destinations account for most of the rise and fall. Hong Kong, Malaysia and Vietnam never took more than 4.5% of China’s green tea by weight, but in 2021 they took 29.9% of its value: US$462.4 million for 12,473 tonnes, a unit value of US$37.07 per kg (The Tea Trade’s calculation). Without them, the unit value of China’s green tea stayed between US$3.30 and US$3.62 per kg in every year with reported quantities. Their share of the value fell to 3.9% in 2025, and the overall average came back within that range. The same three destinations lift the average for all tea, as our guide to Chinese tea export markets shows. The customs data do not say what tea they bought or why its unit value was so far above the rest.

Source: UN Comtrade via WITS, exports reported by China (2015–2025); unit values: The Tea Trade’s calculation

Green tea unit values by destination, 2015 and 2025

Green tea unit values for China’s 12 main destinations by 2025 volume, 2015 and 2025 (each destination’s main subheading in 2025; value in US$ thousand, quantity in tonnes; source: UN Comtrade via WITS; The Tea Trade’s calculation)

Green tea in packs of 3 kg or less for West Africa had a unit value a little above US$4 per kg at both ends of the decade. In 2025 Senegal, Mauritania, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Mali showed between US$3.97 and US$4.26 per kg, and the West African countries together (UN M49 region) US$469.4 million ÷ 117,143 tonnes = US$4.01 per kg, against US$298.2 million ÷ 69,069 tonnes = US$4.32 in 2015 (The Tea Trade’s calculation). Their share of China’s small packs by weight rose from 49.2% to 80.5% over the decade. Tonnes by destination and pack size for 2025 are in our guide to China’s 2025 tea exports.

Destinations that take larger packings show lower and more scattered unit values: US$3.51 per kg for Algeria and US$3.04 for Morocco in 2025, US$2.22 for Russia, US$2.09 for Uzbekistan and US$1.12 for Chad. The statistics do not say why, but they rule out distance: China records exports at its own border, so the cost of reaching each market is not in these figures.

Morocco also changed format. In 2015, 60.5% of the green tea China declared for Morocco left in packs of 3 kg or less: 39,005 tonnes worth US$155.4 million, a unit value of US$3.98 per kg. By 2025 the share was 0.3%. From 2015 Morocco’s tariff charged 32.5% on green tea in packs of up to 3 kg and 2.5% on larger packings; since 2024 it has charged 30% on packings under 20 kg and 2.5% on packings of 20 kg or more, as our guide to importing green tea into Morocco explains. The statistics do not show whether the duty drove the change.

Same destination, two pack sizes

Unit value of green tea in each format for the same destination, 2025 (the 12 of the 15 main destinations that received at least 100 tonnes in each format; value in US$ thousand, quantity in tonnes; source: UN Comtrade via WITS; The Tea Trade’s calculation)

Comparing the two formats within one destination takes the destination out of the comparison. In ten of these 12 markets, packs of 3 kg or less had the higher unit value. Where larger packings showed US$0.88 to US$1.34 per kg, as in Cameroon, Niger, Chad and Benin, small packs showed two to three and a half times their unit value; in Uzbekistan and Russia, small flows of 123 and 217 tonnes showed more than US$7 per kg. The gap almost vanished in Algeria (US$3.57 against US$3.51) and reversed in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, where larger packings were small flows of 317 and 150 tonnes.

Part of the gap is built into the measure. The quantity is net weight, without packaging, while the UN recommendations base trade values on the WTO’s customs valuation rules, which count the cost of packing in the value (IMTS 2010). When tea leaves China in retail packs, the cost of the packs is in the numerator and their weight is not in the denominator. The statistics do not measure this effect or separate it from differences in the tea itself.

Tea type and grade: what the customs codes do not show

Tea type. MOFCOM’s green tea group leaves out the scented and white tea lines that China’s tariff places under the same two subheadings. Its 2025 reports no longer print their code list, but in 2025 UN Comtrade’s two subheadings exceeded the group by 8,134 tonnes, matching the jasmine, other scented and white tea (7,510, 147 and 477 tonnes) reported by the China Tea Marketing Association. Those lines came to about US$64 million, a unit value of about US$7.8 per kg, more than twice the US$3.37 of MOFCOM’s green tea group (The Tea Trade’s calculation). A destination that buys more jasmine or white tea therefore shows a higher green tea unit value without any change in its other green tea.

Grade. Neither the HS nor China’s eight-digit tariff lines record grade. China’s standards give each grade of gunpowder an export code, from 3505 down to 9375, and each grade of chunmee one, from 41022 down to 9366, but the first and the last grade in the same packing share one customs line. A unit value cannot tell them apart. A 2022 article in the journal China Tea Processing describes Morocco as the main market for high-grade gunpowder 3505 and reports Moroccan consumers turning to high-grade chunmee; yet the unit value of Morocco’s green tea, shipped in larger packings, was US$3.04 per kg in 2025, below that of the packed tea of every West African market in the destination table. How the customs codes treat matcha is explained in our guide to Chinese matcha.

Gaps in the data and the latest figures

• 2016. UN Comtrade’s quantities for China’s green tea are estimates, so this guide gives no unit value by pack size or destination for that year.
• Estimated rows. UN Comtrade also estimated some destinations’ quantities of packs of 3 kg or less in 2023 and 2024, mostly France and Italy: 3,339 and 4,549 tonnes, 2.5% and 3.5% of that subheading’s volume. Smaller estimates, under 0.4% of a subheading’s volume, occur in 2017, 2018, 2020 to 2022 and 2025. All are inside the all-destination figures; none concerns Hong Kong, Malaysia, Vietnam or the destination tables.
• Revisions. UN Comtrade data can be revised; these were read on 13 October 2026.
• 2026 so far. MOFCOM’s latest monthly report, covering January to April 2026, puts its green tea group at US$435.0 million for 118,131 tonnes, a unit value of US$3.68 per kg, 14.8% higher than a year earlier, according to MOFCOM. Its archive listed no later report in October 2026. Unit values of all Chinese tea exports, month by month, are tracked in our guide to China’s tea exports by month.

How to read green tea unit values

• Compare like with like. Use the same subheading, destination and year. A figure for West Africa’s small packs and one for Morocco’s larger packings measure different trade.
• Watch the mix. Averages move when destinations or formats shift: the 2021 peak came from three destinations that took under 5% of the tonnes.
• Do not read a price or a grade into it. A unit value averages grades and types of tea; the grade, the sample and the packing of a lot belong in the contract.
• Allow for packing. Small packs carry the cost of their packaging in the value but not its weight in the quantity.