UK trade mission aims to sell tea to China Tea to China. I think it's really good. Nothing is impossible if you try hard enough and you have a good product at the right price. There are these absolutely massive emerging markets and we want to get in there," the Minister said. China produces around 1.4 million tonnes of tea a year. Recent figures show that tea consumption in China has risen by 10 per cent over the last two years to 1.06 million tonnes. Although firms on the trip range from tea-makers to nut companies to sweet manufacturers, Mr Paterson said that dairy companies will be the main focus of the expedition. The UK currently imports £1.2 billion more dairy products around the world than it exports, and the Government believes that ramping up sales to countries like China is a way to close this gap. Mr Paterson will be accompanied by representatives from companies including Trioni, a Welsh dairy company that specialises in exporting UHT milk, Somerdale cheese, and Spencer and Fleetwood, a chocolate company. "From chocolate to cheddar, China's population is getting a taste for dairy, and Britain's world-class food industry can supply that demand," he said. The Minister said that there is a "real drive" among Chinese consumers to eat high-quality food. He said that the "exploratory" trip will go some way to fill the £1 billon export hole in dairy products. Bluntly you've got to get on an aeroplane and you've got to go there and see what the potential is, talk to people, find out the local contacts and get stuck in. We are only going to prosper as a country if we get a slice of the international action. We have got this enormous emerging market in China and we have got to be in there," said Mr Paterson. A spokesman for Somerdale said that its cheese products will have to be adapted to the new markets. The company sells high volumes of cheeses flavoured with mango, ginger and cranberry in the Far East as consumers prefer sweeter, milder cheeses, the company said. During the trip the delegation will visit Marks & Spencer and Tesco shops in China to see whether their products could be sold through those stores. Chinese people's diets have become far more Western in recent years due to mass urbanisation. China's urban population reached 691 million in 2011, accounting for over half of the total population. This is up from just a quarter of the total population in 1990. China has been boosting its own milk production to meet the increased demand for dairy products. The country has imported nearly 300,000 foreign heifers in the last three years. However limited suitable land and strict food safety requirements have held back the growth of the country's dairy sector. "There is a tremendous opportunity for us to get high quality, reliable, trusted, traceable, healthy, top quality British dairy products in," said Mr Paterson. The trade mission follows a similar one in May, when Chinese farmers and food companies placed orders for 2,000 high-quality British pigs to breed with their inferior quality domestic animals.