Photo: Courtesy of the Youjiang Hongyun

As the birthplace of tea, China is one of the largest tea producers in the world. Benefiting from China's profound history of cultivating tea crops and the country's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the ancient and popular drink has reached every corner of the world.

The county of Shangyou in East China's Jiangxi Province was named as one of 10 ecological tea production counties of China. Local residents started to cultivate tea crops in the Tang Dynasty (618-907). According to local chronicles of Shangyou county, local produced tea was selected as royal tribute to emperors in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

In Shangyou, the tea plantation area has surpassed 110,000 mu. The tea output reached 2,786 tons worth of 1.56 billion yuan, ranking first in the region. The brand value of "Shangyou Green Tea" has reached 641 million yuan.

Jingxi Youjiang Hongyun Co, a leading local tea production company, has a tea plantation area of more than 3,000 mu, which mainly locates in mountainous areas over 1,000 meters above sea level.

Thanks to the company's traditional cultivation, harvest, processing techniques and imported fine tea trees from six countries, Youjiang Hongyun's tea products have won several national-level prizes, and opened stores in Ji'an, Nanchang (capital of Jiangxi) and Beijing.

Photo: Courtesy of the Youjiang Hongyun

China's domestic sales of tea reached 2.4 million tons in 2022, up 4.15 percent year-on-year, and with a value of 339.527 billion yuan, an increase of 8.82 percent year-on-year, according to data from the China Tea Marketing Association.

In terms of export, Youjiang Hongyun has registered at the local customs, and has signed contracts with clients from South Korea, Japan, Singapore and countries in East Europe. It was predicted that the company's tea exports to BRI partnership countries would reach 20 million yuan.

The Shangyou county government has issued a specific development plan to boost local tea industry through establishing the core production area of the tea and adopting policies to encourage export.