Inspections carried out over the last five years show that more than 90 percent of China's green tea meets quality standards, the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) said on Monday.

Green tea accounted for 76 percent of China's total tea exports by quantity in 2006 and 71 percent by value.

China, the world's largest tea producer, exported 287,000 tons of tea worth US$547 million in 2006, up 13 percent year on year. The average price was also up 13 percent year on year.

In the most recent quality check carried out by the MOA on 161 tea samples from 149 tea producers and stores, 91.9 percent of tea met quality standards.

In 2001, the MOA released a series of measures to ensure tea quality, including forbidding 21 types of pesticide in tea production.

(Xinhua News Agency May 15, 2007)