'King of tea' enriches rural workers

Local women remove stems and impurities from fresh tea. Xiao Yuye / For China Daily

Guizhou province has the largest area of tea gardens in China, making it a key production center for tea. Through tea planting, processing and selling, the income of local people has seen a significant increase, as part of Guizhou's efforts to relieve poverty.

A dark tea, produced from 1,000-year-old trees in Guizhou, amazed experts from around the world at the 12th International Premium Tea Competition held in Denmark last year. The tea, from Yanhe Qian Nian Gu Cha, won the title "the king of tea" at the event.

The leaves, found in the mountains of Guizhou, were rubbed one by one before fermentation and exposed to sunlight and shade several times. Only this way can the dark tea get its special aroma and taste, according to Xiao Shimei, founder of the company.

Xiao is known as the "mother of ancient tea" among locals. Last year, the company produced 300 kilograms of dark tea. It is expected to reach 4,000 kg annually by 2020.

Guizhou is a major production center for tea with its high altitude, little sunshine and little pollution, which is good for the growth of the trees.

Xiao started her business at the age of 40. At the time, her father was ill, so she studied medical books.

"Many books said drinking tea is good for health; that's when I began to grow an interest in it, fell for it and made it a business," she said.

In the first year, the company produced 28.5 kg of tea, but only 5 kg were sold. The next year, 240 kg of tea were in stock till autumn.

To find the reason, Xiao brought about 10 bags of dark tea to the Guizhou Tea Research Institute.

Lei Ruiyong, an expert at the institute, said the tea was precious, but the shape and aroma not so attractive due to poor processing.

To promote sales, Xiao decided to build a processing factory. However, few shareholders agreed to invest more and some withdrew their shares due to poor business performance before.

"I tried to borrow money from about 10 friends or relatives. Some said they didn't have the money and some urged me to give up," said Xiao.

Finally, a nephew helped Xiao using his demolition compensation of 100,000 yuan ($14,876). With the money, her kingdom of tea gradually took shape.

The company now has 80 hectares of tea gardens and more than 20,000 tea trees. She researched the tea market, invited technical advisers and sent employees to learn production methods in Chongqing and Sichuan.

The tea won the golden award at the 10th International Tea Appraisal in 2014. The products can be found in many cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

Her business brought jobs to 1,003 families, including 522 poor people.

Yanhe Tujia autonomous county, where the company is located, has more than 50,000 ancient tea trees and 22 tea gardens. In 2007, the county promoted industrial structure transformation to help local farmers out of poverty, and tea was the key industry.

He Zhigang, head of the county, said the area of tea production grew from 900 hectares to 15,800 hectares. It has 78 tea companies, 42 cooperatives and four provincial-level enterprises. Production has reached 9,800 metric tons with output of 1 billion yuan every year. The industry employs 65,800 people from 156 villages, helping to increase the annual income of tea farmers to 8,500 yuan per capita.

By 2018, tea became a pillar industry for 43 counties in Guizhou, employing 498,500 poor people. The annual income of tea farmers reached 8,641 yuan per capita on average.

Guizhou has 501,333 hectares of tea gardens, ranked largest in the country for six consecutive years. Zunyi, Tongren and Qiannan Buoyei and Miao autonomous prefecture of Guizhou are key production areas for Chinese green tea. The number of tea processing enterprises and cooperatives reached 5,000. In 2018, the total production volume of tea was 362,000 tons, with output value reaching 39.4 billion yuan.

Zhou Shaojun, director of the Datun village committee in Shiqian county and a deputy to the National People's Congress, is involved in the tea industry. For years, he and other villagers have built a modern ecological tea park, based on a mountain. Production reached 670 square meters per family per year on average.

Now the tea is a major brand of Shiqian county. The tea won nationwide fame and is one of the top three teas in Guizhou.

"The poverty alleviation policy has brought more opportunities. We aim to make the tea industry bigger and stronger," Zhou said.

The tea industry will become key to promoting ecological development, poverty-relief and rural revitalization in Guizhou, with an improved scale, quality and business profit, according to a recent document from the local government.

Better policies will guide capital, technologies and human resources to the tea industry, it said.

Yu Liufen, Party chief of Yanbo village in Panzhou city and a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said industrial development laid the basis for poverty alleviation.

"Every village is different, suited for specific industries. Industry brings jobs and makes poverty relief move at a stable pace," she said.

In January, Shen Yiqin, governor of Guizhou province, said in the government work report that the province will cultivate 10 agricultural industries with an area of 66,667 hectares each. It will promote the upgrading of tea gardens and build national-level tea garden centers.

Wang Qing, head of the China Tea Marketing Association, said the tea industry in Guizhou is entering a new era. The industry can bring wealth to people and benefit the environment.

Che Weiwei contributed to this story.