This year, Shangnan County has focused on the construction of an “Eco-friendly Tea City,” making significant efforts in consolidating foundations, brand promotion, service provision, and project development to drive high-quality growth in the county's tea industry. In the first half of the year, the county established 7,000 mu of new clonal tea gardens, renovated 5,000 mu of low-yield tea gardens, cultivated 10,000 mu of productive tea gardens, produced 8,800 tons of dry tea, and achieved a primary industry value of 1.56 billion yuan.

The county is using the Chengguan, Shimaxi, and Fushui areas as core carriers for the “Eco-friendly Tea City” initiative. Adhering to principles of efficient and intensive resource utilization, it is concentrating elements related to tea, Tourism, culture, and health, strengthening resource coordination and allocation, and accelerating the construction of the Chengguan area's tea health demonstration park, the Fushui area's integrated tea industry demonstration park, and the Shimaxi area's modern agricultural industry demonstration park. In the Fushui area, efforts are being made to develop productive tea gardens, revitalize tourist reception centers, Yunyue Tower, Xianming Pavilion, and other facilities, construct guesthouses and other tourism and health nodes, and advance projects such as the tea trading market and the Shuangshan clean processing plant. The Shimaxi area continues to upgrade existing facilities like smart greenhouses, seedling bases, and intelligent tea gardens, while also completing the decoration and arrangement of the Qin Yuanchun company's comprehensive exhibition hall and teahouse, constructing rural restaurants and other tourism and health nodes, and striving to become a 4A-level scenic spot. The Chengguan area is accelerating the construction of tea garden infrastructure and complementary facilities such as landscaping and lighting, continuously promoting the Qinling Tea Village Tea-Tourism Integration Industrial Park project, and expediting the comprehensive development of tea health-related businesses. Additionally, through new construction and replanting, the county is promoting the concentrated and contiguous development of tea gardens, enhancing per-mu benefits, and ensuring that all tea leaves are harvested by focusing on fertilization, picking, and processing.

Shangnan County is committed to coordinating the two dimensions of industrial chains and industrial clusters to extend the “length” and broaden the “width” of the tea industry. To expand the industrial chain, the county is prioritizing both seedling cultivation and introduction, increasing efforts to renovate low-yield tea gardens, and improving the coverage rate of quality tea varieties. It is also emphasizing equipment and technological upgrades, speeding up the construction of large Tea processing plants like Shuangshan, training agricultural technicians and technical talents, and enhancing processing standards. To strengthen the industrial cluster, the county is continuing to deepen the integration of tea tourism and health, building guesthouses, rural restaurants, and Tea culture experience projects in the three major areas, organizing tea village tours, self-driving tours, study tours, and other activities at appropriate times, and forming a “tea + ecology + tourism” business model that includes viewing tea landscapes, tasting fragrant teas, enjoying rural meals, experiencing local customs, and comfortable accommodations to boost tourist spending and increase the added value of the tea industry. The county supports outsourcing tea garden management and tea product packaging businesses, exploring the establishment of tea garden management service companies, and cooperating with the development of tea packaging industries to accelerate the clustering of tea-related industries.

Shangnan County is committed to balancing brand building and market marketing, increasing the number of sub-brands authorized to use “Qinling Quan Ming,” organizing participation in brand promotion events, expanding online and offline sales channels, and enhancing overall brand influence. It is also focusing on deep processing, increasing research and development efforts on new products like Qin Yuanchun rock tea, Shuangshan aged White Tea, and tea polyphenols, and improving the comprehensive utilization rate of summer and autumn teas.

Additionally, Shangnan County is further optimizing key support factors such as talent technology and project funding to provide strong backing for the high-quality development of the tea industry. It is strengthening strategic cooperation with research institutions like the Chinese Academy of Tea Sciences and Northwest A&F University, focusing on tea technology training, technology application and promotion, and solving critical problems, and conducting technological research, product development, and talent cultivation. Professional service teams are fully serving tea enterprises and farmers, helping to improve their abilities in tea garden management, tea production, and disaster prevention and mitigation, effectively leveraging science and talent. The county is giving full play to the assistance force of the National Rural Revitalization Science and Technology Special Dispatch Team's Tea Industry Group, with a focus on technical guidance and skills training. More than ten technical officials have been organized to provide continuous services in the fields, organizing four large and medium-sized activities including city-wide black tea processing skills, tea garden management techniques, and tea production and processing skills training, and training 150 technical talents and tea-related residents. The county is actively connecting with funds for consolidation and connectivity, specialty agriculture, and brand promotion, seeking financial support from central and provincial levels, guiding tea enterprises to use Jiangsu-Shaanxi collaboration, tea loans, and investment funds, ensuring funding for key projects like the Shuangshan tea study base and the tea trading market, stimulating market investment vitality, and attracting more projects, more talents, and more social funds to the tea industry.

(Contributor Dai Xugang)