Fuding's state tea factory (1950–1990s) under the China Tea system: exported Bailin Gongfu black tea and white teas; wound up after 1993.
One account says the China Tea Fujian branch built the Fuding County tea factory 'in Bailin' in April 1950. The society history says the county first used the old 广泰 tea house in Bailin and then moved the main factory to 南校场 in Fuding town, leaving Bailin as a primary-processing branch from 1953.
The society history says the factory stopped production in 1993 with assets restructured; one version calls this a declared bankruptcy. The same texts say bankruptcy proceedings opened in December 2000. Probably production ended in 1993 and the legal winding-up came in 2000, but no primary record was seen.
In 1950 the 中国茶叶公司福建分公司 decided to set up a state tea factory for Fuding County. According to the 福鼎市茶文化研究会 history (based on city archives and oral accounts), the county first put it at the former 广泰 tea house in Bailin. The main factory then moved to a 60-mu site at 南校场 near 观音阁 in Fuding town. Under the planned economy the factory and the county's purchasing stations bought and processed tea, and the China Tea Fujian branch exported it. Its Bailin branch made Bailin Gongfu (白琳工夫) black tea for the USSR and Eastern Europe in the 1950s.
In the 1960s it moved to white tea and green tea, and from 1968 to the export product later called 新工艺白茶 (new-craft white tea); see the separate Bailin record. In 1982 the Bailin branch was described as Fuding's largest state tea factory, run mainly for white tea exports. Tea trading was liberalised in 1984. According to the same society history, Fuding Tea Factory stopped production in 1993 and its assets were restructured (one version says it was declared bankrupt), and formal bankruptcy proceedings opened in December 2000. Several present-day Fuding firms claim to continue the state-factory tradition.
For example, 福建省广福茶业 says it carries on a '1957 state factory' tradition. These are self-descriptions, not documented successions.
