Guizhou's tea industry surges during the last decade

According to the latest data released at the 2020 Guizhou Tea Industry Expo, which kicked off in Zunyi's Meitan county on May 28, Guizhou currently processes 7 million mu (466,666.67 hectares) of tea gardens, ranking the first in China.

In 2019, Guizhou's tea output reached 401,000 metric tons, helping 3.56 million people to increase their income. 348,100 of these had been low-income people.

As the tea planting area has increased, the amount of tea-related companies in Guizhou is also increasing. The number of registered companies reached 6,843 in 2019, an increase of 653 percent from 2010. Currently, Guizhou has 41,000 tea related companies, 32,000 of which are in business.

Zunyi city has the most tea companies with 8,083, 25 percent of the total amount in Guizhou, and is followed by Tongren city, Qiannan Bouyei and Miao autonomous prefecture.

Home to Guizhou Tea Industry Expo, Zunyi has 1.64 million mu of tea gardens, highest among Guizhou's cities and prefectures. Zunyi's Meitan county has the largest tea garden area, while Fenggang, Yuqing and Zheng'an counties are also major tea planting regions.

Tea companies with registered capital above 5 million yuan occupy 17 percent of the total amount in Guizhou; higher than the national level of 10 percent.

In recent years, Guizhou has focused on both offline and online markets to promote its tea industry. Statistics show that 4.3 percent of Guizhou's tea companies are involved in e-commerce, higher than the national level.