Outlook: Chronicles of State Governance｜Coordinated efforts to improve the "tea industry"

◇On March 22, 2021, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized during his inspection tour in Fujian that we must coordinate the development of tea culture, tea industry, and tea technology, adhere to the direction of green development, strengthen brand awareness, optimize the marketing and distribution environment, and lay a solid industrial foundation for rural revitalization.

◇Fujian promotes tea culture by tapping into resources, concentrates on developing and strengthening the tea industry, and continuously innovates and improves tea technology, striving to promote the coordinated development, mutual promotion, and common improvement of the three.

◇The aroma of tea, filled with philosophical and poetic sentiments, is an important symbol of China's excellent traditional culture. Carrying forward Chinese tea culture will help promote cultural self-confidence and self-reliance.

◇Agricultural industrialization consortiums use enterprises to lead industries, and industries to lead farmers. Farmers, collectives, and enterprises cooperate and develop together. It is estimated that by 2025, Fujian Province will establish 300 tea-related agricultural industrialization consortiums, driving more than 30,000 tea farmers.

◇ Drawing on the production model of wine estates, modern tea enterprises integrating production, processing, marketing, branding, culture and tourism have quietly emerged in Fujian. In 2019, Fujian issued the first provincial local standard in the country, the "Guidelines for the Construction of Tea Estates". Currently, there are more than 60 tea estates built or under construction in the province.

◇Relying on the resource garden, Fujian has successfully bred 34 national and provincial varieties of high-fragrance tea trees, including "Golden Guanyin", "Golden Peony", "Spring Boudoir" and "Ruixiang".

◇Since 2021, Fujian Province has selected and recognized a total of 369 tea-related science and technology commissioners and established 388 tea industry science and technology commissioner teams.

Text | Tai Xiaoan, Zhang Huaying, Pang Mengxia, reporters of Outlook News Weekly

As a key tea-growing region in my country, Fujian has a long history of tea culture, a tea industry that ranks among the largest in the country, and a large population involved in tea. It is a shining pearl in the colorful Chinese tea family. For thousands of years, tea has been deeply integrated into people's daily lives and has become an important carrier of cultural inheritance and development.

As it is related to cultural context and people's livelihood, the small matter of tea touches the heart of the General Secretary.

As early as when he was working in Fujian, Comrade Xi Jinping regarded the tea industry as one of the seven advantageous industries to be carefully cultivated, and visited key tea-growing areas for research. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the General Secretary has visited tea-growing areas many times during local inspections, pointing out the direction for the healthy development of the tea industry.

On March 22, 2021, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized during his inspection tour in Fujian that we must coordinate the development of tea culture, tea industry, and tea technology, adhere to the direction of green development, strengthen brand awareness, optimize the marketing and distribution environment, and lay a solid industrial foundation for rural revitalization.

With this as a guide, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and other departments have successively issued documents such as "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Healthy Development of the Tea Industry" to strengthen guidance and support and improve the quality, efficiency and sustainable development capabilities of the tea industry.

In August 2021, the Fujian Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs issued the "Several Opinions on Coordinating the "Tea Culture, Tea Industry, and Tea Technology" to Promote the High-Quality Development of the Tea Industry", formulated special policies and measures, and key tea-producing cities and counties successively established working groups and special working groups to promote tea culture by tapping resources, concentrate on developing and strengthening the tea industry, and continuously innovate and improve tea technology, striving to promote the coordinated development, mutual promotion, and common improvement of the three.

Tea picking and tea making activities held at Dapingzhou Ecological Tea Garden in Wuyishan City, Fujian Province Photo by Qiu Ruquan

The aroma of tea, filled with philosophical and poetic thoughts, is an important symbol of China's excellent traditional culture. Carrying forward Chinese tea culture will help promote cultural self-confidence and self-reliance.

"Gongfu tea is the most popular in Fujian." Tea is the name card of Fujian. As early as 300 years before the birth of "The Classic of Tea", Fujian had cliff carvings about tea. The long history and far-reaching influence of tea culture have left a wealth of relics, customs and skills here. Fujian has deeply excavated and protected tea cultural resources, vigorously promoted the dissemination of tea culture, and continuously promoted the creative transformation and innovative development of tea culture.

Make every effort to protect the rich tea heritage. The Beiyuan Imperial Roasting Site is located in Jian'ou City, Nanping, Fujian. As a witness to the 400-year history of imperial tribute tea, it is also the only national-level tea-related site in my country. In 2021, Jian'ou City insured the Beiyuan tribute tea key cultural relics for 400 million yuan and hired a team of archaeological experts to conduct archaeological surveys. In 2022, the Beiyuan Imperial Roasting Archaeological Site Park was announced by the Fujian Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau as the "Second Batch of Provincial Archaeological Site Parks in Fujian Province."

This is a microcosm of Fujian Province's efforts to explore and protect tea culture resources. "We encourage major tea-producing areas to collect and organize local tea history, tea customs, tea techniques and other tea culture-related materials and relics, actively compile local tea records, repair and protect tea culture sites, deepen tea culture research, and form a number of tea culture achievements," said Lin Defu, a second-level inspector of the Fujian Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

The rich and diverse traditional tea-making skills are an important resource of Fujian's tea culture and a key point of inheritance and protection. In recent years, Fujian has established a four-level intangible cultural heritage protection system of "national, provincial, municipal and county" to strengthen the inheritance, protection and innovative application of traditional tea-making skills. In 2022, "Chinese Traditional Tea-Making Skills and Related Customs" was included in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, and Fujian has 6 projects on the list.

According to a relevant official from the Fujian Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, Fujian currently has 6 tea-related world intangible cultural heritage items, 6 national intangible cultural heritage projects, and 29 provincial intangible cultural heritage projects, ranking first among the country's tea-producing provinces.

Promote the integrated development of tea culture and tourism. In the Longyan Yongfu Taipin Sakura Tea Garden, cherry trees are in full bloom. Walking in the ten thousand mu tea garden, the green tea and the red cherry trees complement each other, and tourists walk in the painting, feeling double the romance.

Thanks to its high appearance, Yongfu Cherry Blossom Tea Garden has become a popular photo-taking spot. Xie Dongqing, the person in charge of the tea garden, said that when the cherry blossoms are in full bloom, an average of 20,000 to 30,000 tourists come to visit every day.

Promoting tourism through tea and promoting tea through tourism are important measures for Fujian to innovate and develop tea culture.

Wuyi Mountain is the starting point of the Tea Horse Road, and is also the location of the World Natural and Cultural Heritage Site and Wuyi Mountain National Park. "We promote the deep integration of tea culture and tourism, and create a new business model of 'tea banquets for eating, tea accommodation for staying, tea paths for walking, tea gardens for touring, tea gifts for buying, and tea operas for entertainment'. Wuyi tea culture has become a beautiful landscape in the development of cultural tourism." Yang Qingjian, member of the Standing Committee of the Nanping Municipal Party Committee and Secretary of the Wuyishan Municipal Party Committee, said.

Fujian is targeting "tea tourism" and encouraging all localities to integrate farming culture, traditional crafts, folk etiquette, local customs and practices into tea culture. Tea garden ecological tours, tea country experience tours, tea health tourism, tea affairs study tours and other tea-themed tourism experience projects are constantly innovating, turning tea gardens into parks, tea areas into scenic spots, private houses into homestays, and tea mountains into gold mountains.

Liang Quanshun, deputy director of the Fujian Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, introduced that Fujian will further tap the market potential of tea culture experience, training and cultural and creative products, further develop diversified tea culture tourism products, and continuously expand the tea-tourism integration business.

Tell the story of Chinese tea with passion. "I must turn to Wuyi black tea for help." This sentence written by the British poet Byron in "Don Juan" is a historical testimony to the fact that Fujian tea and Chinese tea culture were once popular in Europe.

Today, Fujian tea has once again gone abroad and become a new medium for telling China's stories well.

In recent years, the "Fujian Tea Maritime Silk Road" event has become a brand project to spread Fujian tea culture and tell the story of Chinese tea. Since 2016, Fujian has held 20 Fujian tea promotion conferences abroad and established 16 "Fujian Tea Culture Promotion Centers". While promoting the growth of tea exports in the province, it continues to promote the concept of "sharing development of tea and the world".

"Our brand has entered a three-star Michelin restaurant in Paris. By serving jasmine tea as an after-meal drink, we let customers feel the 'taste of Chinese spring'." Fu Tianlong, chairman of Fujian Chunlun Group, introduced that the company has successively entered Russia, the European Union, Southeast Asia, Japan and other countries and regions participating in the construction of the "Belt and Road Initiative", allowing the world to experience Chinese tea culture through "a cup of tea, a flower, and a glass of water."

A corner of the Pu'er tea storage warehouse at the Anxi General Factory of Fujian Bama Tea Industry Photo by Wei Peiquan/This magazine

Tea farmers pick new tea leaves on the tea mountain in Xingcun Town, Wuyishan City, Fujian Province. Photo by Chen Ying

The tea industry is an important and distinctive industry in Fujian. Based on stabilizing the area, increasing the yield, improving the quality and improving the efficiency, Fujian continues to improve the greening and fine processing level of the tea industry and continuously extend the industrial chain. The province's tea yield, total output, raw tea output value and other indicators are among the best in the country, and a number of regional brands and leading enterprises have emerged.

The whole village promotes the construction of ecological tea garden. Jiangmei Village in Diantou Town, Fuding City is surrounded by mountains and the sea. Standing on the tea mountain in the village and looking around, you can see the vibrant green tea garden at the intersection of the blue sea and green mountains.

Jiangmei Village is located at a low altitude and has a high temperature, so tea trees are prone to diseases and pests. In the past, villagers used to use "strong drugs" to control pests. In order to achieve green development and improve the quality of tea, Jiangmei Village will promote the construction of an ecological tea garden in the entire village from 2021. Party members take the lead and the masses follow up, and all sign a commitment letter not to use chemical pesticides.

"According to relevant regulations, we display a 'yellow code' to farmers who use chemical pesticides in violation of regulations and suspend transactions for seven days. We resume transactions after seven days but display the 'yellow code' all year round to remind purchasing staff to pay attention to the risks of pesticide residues. For those who use herbicides and imidacloprid in violation of regulations, they will be given a 'red code' once discovered and will be prohibited from trading all year round." Miao Qisun, secretary of the Jiangmei Village Party Branch, introduced that the village has strictly managed the pesticide sales link and supplied biological pesticides to villagers at low cost. It has also installed biological facilities such as smart traps and color card traps to assist in eliminating pests.

"After a period of standardized guidance, the villagers' concepts have gradually changed, the quality of tea has been improved, and it can be stably supplied to local large-scale tea companies at a price slightly higher than the market price." Miao Qisun said that now the output value of tea in Jiangmei Village has reached 30 to 40 million yuan per year, and the average annual tea income per household has reached 50,000 to 60,000 yuan.

Focusing on the goal of basically achieving the goal of not using chemical pesticides in tea gardens across the province, Fujian has focused on promoting the ecological transformation of tea gardens. By strictly prohibiting predatory production methods such as high-density planting and excessive dwarfing, taking comprehensive measures such as planting trees, leaving grass, intercropping, interplanting, drainage, road construction, and soil cultivation to improve the ecology of tea gardens, demonstrating and promoting tea garden soil habitat optimization technologies such as intercropping soybeans and rapeseed, and applying digital and intelligent means such as remote sensing satellites, communication satellites, and digital meteorology, Fujian's ecological tea gardens have developed rapidly, and their area has accounted for 83% of the total tea garden area in the province.

Support leading enterprises to form consortiums. Fujian currently has 266 provincial key leading enterprises in the tea industry, accounting for 20.5% of the number of similar agricultural enterprises. One-quarter of the top 100 tea companies in China are in Fujian. Support leading enterprises to continue to grow bigger and stronger, and Fujian encourages them to take the lead in establishing agricultural industrialization consortiums.

In Songxi County, northern Fujian, the "Ximing Songxi White Tea Production, Education and Research Comprehensive Base", a key project of Fujian Province with a total investment of about 210 million yuan, is under construction. After the completion of this modern tea base integrating intelligent white tea factory, intelligent white tea storage center, and testing center, it will drive the continuous increase in income of Songxi tea farmers.

Zhu Chensong, chairman of Ximing Group, said that Songxi is one of the four origins of white tea, with good natural resources and planting foundation. The base will connect farmers and farmers through the "enterprise cooperative farmer" model. Leading enterprises will not only give orders, but also provide guidance on scientific planting, so as to achieve "teaching both fish and fish".

Agricultural industrialization consortiums use enterprises to lead industries, and industries to lead farmers. Farmers, collectives, and enterprises cooperate and develop together. It is estimated that by 2025, Fujian Province will establish 300 tea-related agricultural industrialization consortiums, driving more than 30,000 tea farmers.

The integration of the three industries has improved the tea-related industry chain. On a tea mountain about 1,000 meters above sea level in Changxinfeng, Longjuan Township, Anxi County, Quanzhou City, the Zhongmin Wei Tea Manor is surrounded by clouds and mist, the tea ridges are green and the air is moist and fresh.

Unlike tea mountains and tea factories with single functions, this tea estate covering an area of ​​nearly 10,000 acres integrates Tieguanyin production, new product research and development, visiting experience, leisure and vacation, and tea culture communication. In addition to the annual production of nearly 200,000 kilograms of raw tea, tourists can also have an "immersive" experience of tea picking and making here.

Drawing on the production model of wine estates, modern tea enterprises integrating production, processing, marketing, branding, culture and tourism have quietly emerged in Fujian. In 2019, Fujian issued the first provincial local standard in the country, the "Guidelines for the Construction of Tea Estates". Currently, there are more than 60 tea estates built or under construction in the province.

Tea estates are one of the achievements of Fujian Province in promoting the deep integration of the three industries of the tea industry. Focusing on "a leaf", Fujian has formed a full chain of tea-related industries covering tea beverages, tea food, tea utensils, tea chemicals, tea machinery, tea culture and tourism. In 2023, Fujian's raw tea output will reach 550,000 tons, ranking second in the country.

Damin Food Co., Ltd. has an annual production capacity of more than 15,000 tons of instant tea, making it the world's largest instant tea producer; Fujian Xianyangyang Biotechnology Co., Ltd. has become a participating drafting unit for national standards for tea powder, tea concentrate and commercial export... Fujian strongly supports the tea industry to extend the industrial chain. A number of tea-related companies extract and utilize tea polyphenols, tea polysaccharides, tea pigments, theanine and other effective ingredients, effectively improving the comprehensive utilization rate of tea resources.

Concentrated development lights up the "colorful Fujian tea". All the counties in Fujian produce tea. Fujian is the province with the most complete varieties of tea in the country, forming a colorful Fujian tea system.

Su Feng, a professor-level senior agronomist at the Fujian Provincial Crop Production Technology Extension Station, introduced that in recent years, Fujian has actively expanded domestic and foreign tea markets, opened up tea sales channels, and promoted the gathering of Fujian's characteristic tea industries such as the nationally renowned Wuyi Rock Tea, Anxi Tieguanyin, Fuding White Tea, and Fuzhou Jasmine Tea.

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Fujian will focus on building five key modern agricultural industrial parks for tea in Anxi, Fuding, Zhenghe, Zhangping and Yongchun, and five advantageous and characteristic industrial clusters of Wuyi Rock Tea, Anxi Tieguanyin, Fuding White Tea, Fuzhou Jasmine Tea and Fujian Black Tea. It will build 40 strong agricultural industrial towns and 200 strong industrial villages with tea as the leading industry, and promote the "circular" development of Fujian's tea industry.

Focusing on improving the popularity and reputation of "Colorful Fujian Tea", Fujian has worked hard to improve regional public brands such as Anxi Tieguanyin, Wuyi Rock Tea, and Fuding White Tea, and to create a number of tea enterprise brands with national influence. By 2025, the province will strive to achieve 20 registered products with geographical indications for tea agricultural products and 40 well-known Chinese trademarks.

At the Fuzhou Jasmine Tea Workshop, Fu Tianfu, a master of the traditional scenting process of Fuzhou Jasmine Tea, performs the sixth step of tea making, “scenting”. Photo by Zhou Yi/This magazine

Walking into Tanyang Village, Shekou Town, Fu'an City, Ningde City, the thousands of acres of tea gardens surrounding the village are rolling and lush; the tea shops in the village are lined up along the street, and bursts of tea fragrance waft out from time to time... More than a hundred years ago, the black tea brand "Tanyang Gongfu" originated here.

"Every time Fujian tea leads the trend, it is inseparable from innovation. The key to expanding and strengthening the tea industry lies in scientific and technological innovation." Su Feng said that by strengthening the protection of tea tree resources and variety innovation, improving the level of tea production and processing technology and equipment, and vigorously cultivating high-quality tea talents, Fujian tea is showing an increasingly strong technological style.

Exploiting germplasm advantages to promote tea innovation. Fujian is known as a "treasure trove of tea varieties" and is rich in tea germplasm resources. In recent years, Fujian has worked hard to transform its germplasm resource advantages into industrial development advantages.

Shekou Town not only grows tea but also raises seedlings. The largest tea germplasm resource garden in Fujian is located here. The resource garden has collected and preserved more than 1,000 tea varieties, 1,000 oolong tea germplasm materials, and 4,000 other germplasm materials.

Chen Changsong, director of the Tea Research Institute of the Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, introduced that there are currently 61 tea varieties approved and registered at the national and provincial levels in Fujian, with a coverage rate of 96% for improved tea varieties. Relying on resource gardens, Fujian has successfully cultivated 34 high-fragrant tea varieties at the national and provincial levels, including "Golden Guanyin", "Golden Peony", "Spring Boudoir" and "Duixiang".

Li Hui, a third-level researcher at the Ningde Municipal Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau, said that Ningde used the new tea variety "Golden Peony" to make black tea using the technology of oolong tea, and launched an innovative high-fragrant black tea, which quickly gained market favor. "Ningde produces 26,000 tons of black tea annually, and innovative black tea accounts for one-third," said Li Hui.

"Three transformations" innovation improves the craftsmanship. A cup of good tea depends on both raw materials and craftsmanship. Fujian continues to improve the craftsmanship of Fujian tea by standardizing, intelligentizing and technologically advancing tea production and processing.

Withering is the core process of white tea production. Traditional withering basically relies on open-air exposure, and the weather has a great impact on the quality of tea.

"'A cool, sunny and windy northerly day' is the most ideal weather for withering, but whether you can encounter such good weather is entirely dependent on the weather." Zheng Zhaoji, marketing director of Fujian Pinpinxiang Tea Co., Ltd., said that the mature application of LED light source temperature control withering technology has transformed this perceptual description into a standardized production environment.

Walking into the production base of Fujian Pinpinxiang Tea Co., Ltd., in the clean, tidy and bright factory, the white tea refining production equipment extends along the workshop, full of modern atmosphere.

"Through the six refining processes of the automated refining production line, old leaves, wax leaves, non-tea inclusions, etc. are removed, and only 75% of the essence of tea leaves are taken. The assembly line not only reduces costs and increases efficiency, but also ensures that consumers drink safe and healthy tea." Zheng Zhaoji said that this technology solved the problem of standardization of white tea production. The "Sun-Dried Platinum" series of products launched has become a benchmark for old white tea, with cumulative sales of more than 11 million single products and sales exceeding 350 million yuan in 2023.

In recent years, Fujian has continuously improved the level of tea production and processing technology and equipment, promoted the digital application of the tea industry, promoted the transformation of technological achievements in the tea industry, and continuously improved the quality of Fujian tea. It is expected that by 2025, the proportion of famous and high-quality tea in the province will increase to 70%.

"Technology Special Envoys" pass on skills and cultivate "new tea people". Popularize the concept of ecological tea garden planting, teach traditional tea making skills, promote new technologies and new equipment... In recent years, regardless of the peak or off-season of tea making, Liu Guoying, the inheritor of Wuyi rock tea making skills and a science and technology special envoy, is always very busy: "My mission is to pass on tea making skills to more people so that the entire industry will have good craftsmanship."

Over the years, no less than a hundred students have learned tea making from Liu Guoying. Some have set up their own tea companies, and some have become technical backbones of tea factories.

Show farmers how to do it and lead farmers to do it. The science and technology commissioner system originated in Fujian and is a powerful engine to drive the development of the rural tea industry. Since 2021, Fujian Province has selected and recognized 369 tea-related science and technology commissioners and established 388 tea industry science and technology commissioner teams. The Fujian Tea Science and Technology Research Institute has gathered 210 tea technology experts from inside and outside the province as think tank candidates to create a tea technology expert think tank platform, providing technical training and holding technical lectures for more than 1,000 tea company employees, tea farmers and others.

A relevant person in charge of the Fujian Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said that Fujian Province will continue to carry out tea farmer training activities. It is estimated that during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, 100,000 high-quality tea farmers will be trained in the province, and more than 300,000 people will receive remote training; tea making engineers and special tea making technicians will be evaluated and tea processing professional skills competitions will be held, etc., to cultivate middle and senior tea professional and technical personnel, inheritors of national intangible cultural heritage tea making skills, tea making masters and other highly skilled talents, to provide talent guarantee for the coordinated development of tea culture, tea industry, and tea technology.