Villagers were busy picking vine tea leaves in the tea garden of Fashu Village, Furong Town, Yongshun County, Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture on May 14.
“With a management model of company plus base plus farmer, we have planted more than 4,000 mu (about 266.67 hectares) of vine tea in Fashu Village and other places. We have built three modern vine tea processing and production lines, with an annual output of 150 tons of vine tea and an output value of over 50 million yuan,” said a head of an agriculture company.
Yongshun Vine Tea has a refreshing and sweet taste, and is known as the “king of flavonoids” in plants. It is a national geographical indication product sold both domestically and internationally.
Yongshun County has good conditions for microbial fermentation, selenium-enriched soil and linolenic acid-enriched plant communities. It is a suitable place for developing the vine tea industry, and has a history of planting vine tea for thousands of years. It has been rated as the “Hometown of Ancient Chinese Vine Tea”.
The county has worked to build vine tea brands and now has 20 brand trademarks such as Xizhou Vine Tea, and Liyuan Vine Tea. 8 vine tea products have obtained green food certification. Yongshun has extended the vine tea industry chain, optimized the product structure of vine tea, and launched high value-added products such as instant vine tea, vine tea lozenges and toiletries.
Maoba Township in Yongshun County has turned tea farmers into shareholders through village-company cooperation. At present, a total of 13 specialized vine tea cooperatives and 5 companies have been built in the township, leading 13,000 farmers to plant 15,000 mu (1,000 hectares) of vine tea, with a total output value of over 60 million yuan. Maoba Township has won many honors such as a national demonstration town for “One Village, One Product”.
As of now, the total planting area of Yongshun Vine Tea has reached 92,000 mu (about 6133.33 hectares), covering 122 administrative villages in 18 townships throughout the county.
There are 37 specialized cooperatives for vine tea cultivation, 12 modern standard factories, and 24 initial processing factories for vine tea. In 2023, Yongshun Vine Tea had a total output of 2,370 tons, with a total output value of 657 million yuan, driving nearly 30,000 people to increase their income.
