"Spring tea begins to taste since it is made, and the color and taste are sweet and fresh."

As the temperature continues to rise, tea trees are showing new buds, and major tea regions across the country have entered the busy stage of spring tea picking.

With the pleasant aroma of tea, tea farmers ushered in the first harvest of this year.

  Wang Qing, chairman of the China Tea Circulation Association and chairman of the National Tea Standardization Technical Committee, said that spring is the most important season for tea production in China. The output and output value of spring tea account for 50% and 70% of the whole year respectively. more than 1.3 million tons.

With a large number of new tea gardens in Guizhou, Sichuan, Yunnan, Henan and other places entering the picking period, it is estimated that the total output of spring tea in 2022 will exceed 1.4 million tons.

  Ecological tea gardens spread across the country

  In mid-March, spring is bright.

In the Yanzihu Ecological Tea Garden in Xingcun Town, Wuyishan City, Fujian Province, green trees and green bamboos hide a green tea field, which complements the golden rape flowers on the ground. The beautiful scenery attracts many tourists to check in and take pictures.

  Yang Wenchun, one of the leaders of Yanziyu Ecological Tea Garden and the head of the chief rock tea factory in Wuyi Mountain, has cultivated tea for generations and has deep feelings for the tea garden.

  A few years ago, due to the booming Wuyi rock tea market, the density of tea planting increased, which resulted in a series of problems such as soil health damage and tea quality decline in tea gardens.

  In 2018, under the guidance of Liao Hong, the agricultural science and technology commissioner of Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University in Nanping, Yang Wenchun began to build an ecological tea garden.

Through the innovative mode of interplanting green manures such as soybeans and rapeseed and green cultivation, the soil can accumulate rich nutrients, so that the tea tree contains a variety of vitamins and trace elements.

  "In the past, I insisted on using organic fertilizers, but to achieve the effect, the amount of chemical fertilizers should be six or seven times." Yang Wenchun said that Liao Hong developed a high-nitrogen, low-phosphorus and medium-potassium fertilizer that can replace the same amount of chemical fertilizers according to the demand for tea. Organic fertilizer not only reduces input, but also effectively protects and improves soil.

Looking at his 300-acre tea garden, he said happily that this year's tea is growing well, and it must be a bumper year.

  Under the protection of the ecological planting model, the swallow nest has become more and more beautiful, and the quality of tea has been significantly improved, which has also led more and more tea farmers to learn the ecological tea garden planting model.

  Ye Junwu, director of the Wuyishan Tea Industry Development Center, said that the Yanzihu Ecological Tea Garden implements the environmental model of "wearing a hat, shoes, and a belt in the middle". Large areas of vegetation are preserved on the top of the mountain, and the mountainside has a complete ecological circle. Protect the biodiversity of tea gardens; at the same time, implement combined technologies such as ecological regulation, agronomic improvement, and physical prevention and control according to local conditions, so as to improve the construction level of ecological tea gardens in an orderly and effective manner.

Through the soil environment optimization technology model, the "organic fertilizer + green manure" method is adopted, that is, soybeans are planted in summer to fix nitrogen, and rapeseed in winter to activate phosphorus and potassium, and then return to the field and convert them into "green manure" to supply tea trees, which improves the soil fertility of tea gardens. The organic matter content of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, when the interplanting amount is insufficient, apply an appropriate amount of high nitrogen, low phosphorus and medium potassium special organic fertilizer for tea trees.

This model not only solves the problem of soil degradation caused by excessive application of chemical fertilizers, but also effectively improves the nutrient efficiency of tea gardens, improves tea quality, and stabilizes tea yields.

  "In order to give full play to the role of science and technology commissioners and ignite the intellectual engine for rural revitalization, Wuyishan City also selected a group of tea professionals to form a team of science and technology commissioners to serve tea companies and tea farmers in the front line, help promote ecological tea garden technology, and promote scientific research achievements. Transformation, to achieve social, economic, ecological and other multiple benefits, boost the development of the tea industry." Ye Junwu said.

  Like Wuyishan City, the "ecological experiments" of the tea industry have been rolled out across the country.

According to Tianyancha data, as of now, there are 2,839 ecological tea garden-related enterprises in my country, about half of which were established after 2017.

  HEYTEA established an ecological tea garden in Fanjing Mountain in Guizhou in 2017.

After years of cultivation, it has become an important part of the HEYTEA tea supply chain. The tea it produces is the raw material for original classic tea bases such as HEYTEA Lvyan.

In 2021, the tea garden passed the annual re-inspection of an authoritative third-party organization and obtained the organic certification again.

  Mei Yu, secretary-general of the China Tea Association, said that in recent years, the tea industry has carried out a zero-growth campaign in the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and vigorously promoted key technologies such as physical control and biological control, and key technologies such as formula fertilization and water and fertilizer integration.

The quality of tea products in my country has been significantly improved, the ecological environment of the main tea producing areas has been significantly improved, and the level of base construction has been steadily improved.

At present, the national coverage rate of green prevention and control of tea pests and diseases has reached 57.5%.

  really bring benefits

  my country is the largest tea producer and consumer in the world. There are more than 20 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) producing tea, and tea production involves 60 million tea farmers. It has played an important role in promoting regional ecological protection and economic development and helping rural revitalization. effect.

  Jiang Yuanxun, chairman of Zhengshan Tea Industry Co., Ltd., Wuyishan National Nature Reserve in Fujian, said that Zhengshan adopts the industrialization model of "company + base + farmers" to improve infrastructure construction, conduct scientific management training on ecological tea gardens for tea farmers, and entrust tea scientific research. The agency conducts environmental monitoring of tea gardens and guides the management of tea farmers.

  Today, the Zhengshan tea gardens scattered at the foothills of Huanggang Mountain in the nature reserve have a good and complete ecological environment, with a forest coverage rate of 95%.

Ecological planting can not only realize the ecological landscape of "forest in tea, tea in forest, and flowers in tea forest", but also bring tangible benefits to tea farmers.

  Tang Xianhong, chairman and general manager of Sichuan Emeishan Zhuyeqing Tea Industry Co., Ltd., said that Zhuyeqing has driven more than 100,000 tea farmers to develop more than 400,000 mu of tea gardens.

At present, the average income per mu of tea gardens can reach about 6,000 yuan, and some tea gardens with good varieties and high management level can achieve more than 8,000 yuan per mu.

With the promotion of the new standard, it not only drives the efficiency of agriculture, but also makes the days when tea farmers "rely on the sky" gone forever.

  "In 2021, Fuding City, Fujian has established a 15,000-mu high-standard ecological tea garden demonstration base in 5 towns. The ecological tea garden of the demonstration base does not use chemical pesticides, the quality of tea greens has been greatly improved, and the income of tea farmers has increased significantly." Fuding Tea Zhang Qingbi, director of the Industrial Development Center, said that the white tea industry has become an important pillar industry for rural revitalization in Fuding.

Tea farmers have accepted the new concept of biological control, which has changed the idea that they will fight when they see insects, one-sided pursuit of yield and neglect of tea quality; tea companies have also fully realized that establishing ecological tea gardens and not using chemical pesticides is the lifeline of tea companies and the high-quality development of tea. the only way.

  Fujian Pinpinxiang Tea Industry Co., Ltd. takes its own organic tea base as the core to establish a modern tea industry consortium, providing management training, ecological prevention and control, organic fertilizer subsidies, etc.

  A little bit of fluorescence, gathered into a vast galaxy.

With more and more tea gardens adopting ecological planting, my country's tea production has continued to develop rapidly, regional layout has been optimized, product quality has been improved, showing a good momentum of development, and tea foreign trade exports have also reached a new high.

According to customs statistics, in 2021, my country will export 369,400 tons of tea with an amount of US$2.299 billion and an average unit price of US$6,230 per ton, up 5.89%, 12.82%, and 6.68% year-on-year, respectively. The export volume, value and price all hit record highs.

  Mei Yu said that in view of the healthy attributes of tea, there is still huge potential for consumption growth, and the general increase in global tea prices is a foregone conclusion.

There are more than 60,000 tea enterprises in my country, especially the 86 leading tea enterprises at the national level in agricultural industrialization, and they should continue to play an important role in the promotion of ecological planting.

  Quality and expansion of tea consumption

  According to the "2022 China Tea Consumption Market Report" released by the China Tea Association, according to preliminary statistics, China's tea output in 2021 will be 3.0632 million tons, an increase of 77,100 tons or 2.58% over the previous year; more than 86.17% of the tea produced in China is consumed domestically. .

  Although the recovery process of tea consumption in 2021 is constrained by some factors, with the rapid development of new formats and new models such as consumption upgrading, experiential consumption, and online consumption, tea consumption will also take advantage of the momentum to enter a critical period of quality improvement and expansion.

  Innovation-driven high-quality teas are popular.

In September last year, Wuzhou Tea Factory Co., Ltd., an enterprise directly under the Guangxi Supply and Marketing Cooperative, based on the promotion of hot-selling products in previous years, combined with the latest market feedback and demand, further improved the product line layout, and innovatively launched some mid-to-high-end products, such as Centennial Chencang , Pintiancheng, etc., attracting many consumers.

  Yang Xiufang, a researcher at the Hangzhou Tea Research Institute of the All-China Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives, believes that quality is the core competitiveness of an enterprise and a brand. It is hoped that more tea companies will stand in the perspective of consumers, pay more attention to segmented consumer markets and consumer groups, and be driven by innovation. Classified supply, classified guidance, realize the effective connection of tea production and sales, promote industrial efficiency, and make tea farmers rich.

  The versatility of the tea industry promotes the expansion and transformation of industrial functions, and new business forms that integrate with the Internet, medical care, health care, tourism and other industries continue to emerge.

The online tea market has begun to take shape. In 2021, the transaction volume of tea e-commerce will be 28.55 billion yuan, an increase of 2.1% over 2020; new tea drinks have become the mainstream way for young people to drink tea, and interactive experience-based tea consumption has become a major trend. The market size of freshly made and sold tea has exceeded 50 billion yuan; the integration of tea and tourism has also opened up a new development path for the industry.

  Mei Yu believes that from focusing on production capacity development to brand building, my country's tea circulation is facing opportunities brought about by the adjustment of customer base structure, the superposition of multiple business formats and the refinement and enrichment of demand.

It is believed that under the guidance of policies and the drive of the market, various market players will continue to make efforts in green, health, social interaction and high cost performance, and tea consumption will enter a new stage of quality improvement and expansion, driving the development of the tea industry to high quality.

  "In the past 20 years, China's tea industry has grown steadily. In the future, it will continue to undertake the mission of the times to help rural revitalization, serve the health of the whole people, and inherit culture." Wang Qing pointed out that entering a new era, China's tea industry must firmly grasp the importance of health" Opportunity", strive to expand the "richness" of channels, strive to promote the "widespread" of consumption, and finally realize the "strength" of the brand, forge the image of national tea, make a strong voice of national tea, and form a strong market core competitiveness.

  Our reporter Liu Jin Liu Chun Muyang