Xinhua Silk Road: Integrated development empowers tea industry in Nanping, SE. China Fujian

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Aug 10, 2023, 03:38 ET

BEIJING, Aug. 10, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Located in southeast China's Fujian Province, Nanping City is the world's birthplace for black tea, white tea and oolong tea, and the tea industry serves as the pillar of its rural revitalization. In recent years, Nanping has redoubled efforts to become a pacesetter in tea cultural exchange, tea industry development and tea technology innovation.

In 2022, the city's tea plantation area totaled about 45,333 hectares, and the raw tea output reached 90,000 tonnes, with total value of 4.9 billion yuan. The value of the whole supply chain stood at 41.05 billion yuan, and around 350,000 people in Nanping are engaged in the production and processing of tea.

In August 2021, Nanping launched the Green Ecological Tea Garden Initiative to expand the coverage of green ecological tea gardens to the whole region by 2025.

Tea technology plays a role in upgrading the industry and increasing tea farmers' income. It is greatly facilitated by technological specialists, who provide guidance for tea farmers in science-based planting of tea. This has improved tea quality and made tea farmers' life better. Furthermore, the tea industry continues to scale up, generating more economic benefits.

Liao Hong, a professor at Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, who once led a team of technological specialists to Wuyi Mountain, widely applied ecological tea plantation there, and her team established Yanzike Ecological Tea Garden Demonstration Base in Xingcun Town in 2016. Over the years, the quality of tea leaves has been improved. Now for every 1,000kg of ecological tea, over 600kg are of high quality.

Nanping has intensified efforts in tea research. At the China (Nanping) Tea Scientists Forum held in May 2022, the White Paper on the Quality Chemistry and Health Benefits of Wuyi Rock Tea was released. Cooperation with universities and research institutes has been enhanced, so as to quicken the digital transformation of the tea industry.

Nanping boasts a time-honored tea culture. In November 2022, the "traditional Chinese tea-making techniques and related practices", which include the making of Wuyi Rock Tea (Dahongpao), were included in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

In the past two years, Nanping has released a series of tea-themed cultural tourism projects to drive the integrated development of the tea industry and sectors such as tourism, health, cultural and creative industry.

Original link: https://en.imsilkroad.com/p/335526.html

SOURCE Xinhua Silk Road