World's 'Most Expensive' Tea Grown Using Panda Poo

A Chinese entrepreneur is using panda poo to make the world's most expensive green tea.

An Yanshi from Southwest China collects tones of excrement from panda bears living at nearby breeding centres and uses it as a fertiliser to grow organic green tea. An believes that the manure will make the perfect brew.

He started growing the tea in the mountains of Ya'an. He chose to use the poo of pandas because of their high nutritional value, reported Reuters.

"The digestive and absorption abilities of the panda are not good. They keep eating and they keep producing faeces. They are like a machine that is churning out organic fertiliser," Reuters quoted An as saying.

"They also absorb less than 30 per cent of the nutrition from the food and that means more than 70 per cent of the nutrients are passed out in their faeces," he added.

The panda poo green tea will be sold in different batches, with the first batch of tea picked every year in spring, to cost around £2,000 per 500 grams.

The organic green tea will be available in markets in April. An Yanshi is hoping to make it into the Guinness Book of World Records for developing the most expensive tea.