“One Village, one specialty Tea; one tea, one story. Look, this is our famous tea from Fenshui Village, with its emerald green leaves and full buds, producing a refreshing green infusion with a smooth taste. Our tea farmers start picking the first flush of one bud and one leaf in early March every year…” Wang Liguo, the Party Secretary of Fenshui Village, Ketan Town, Lujiang County, Hefei City, is introducing Fenshui's teas to his audience in a live stream.
The tea industry is a pillar of Fenshui Village's economy and the main source of income for tea companies and farmers, making it imperative to strengthen and expand this sector. In recent years, Fenshui Village has actively integrated various resources, collaborating with universities like Anhui Agricultural University to provide tea farmers with training in planting techniques, Tea processing guidance, and tea-making skills. Villagers are encouraged to update their tea varieties according to market demands, with Longjing 43 and Zhongcha 108 currently being the dominant varieties. Additionally, following the model of “village collective + cooperative + households,” the village Party Committee encourages shareholding economic cooperatives to pilot summer and autumn tea production and black tea, shifting from a single-season to a multi-season tea industry, extending the tea-picking period and value chain. This eases bottlenecks in labor and sales, increasing farmers' incomes by more than 700 yuan and companies' revenues by over 1,000 yuan, striving to improve the quality and efficiency of the tea industry.
Study Tours.
“Here, we experienced the joy of picking, stir-frying, and making tea, learned about the vast depth of Tea culture, and felt the significance of labor.” This is what a student from Feidong No. 3 High School said about their study tour. Using tea as a medium to promote the industry, Fenshui Village explored tea-themed study tours this year. The village's collective tea plantation became a popular destination for study tours, receiving over 20,000 visitors and generating over 10,000 yuan in collective economy revenue.
Extending from offline to online, Fenshui Village encouraged tea farmers to explore new sales channels. It recommended Jixuejiao, a 90s-born “new farmer,” to participate in the “Headswan” Training Program for Leaders in Rural Industry Revitalization in Anhui Province. Through “teaching, helping, and leading,” more tea farmers joined in. E-commerce not only helped sell the village's tea but also assisted in enriching the community, driving the thriving development of the rural economy. By 2024, annual tea sales through both online and offline channels reached approximately 280 tons, generating operating income of 130 million yuan.
In the future, Fenshui Village plans to fully utilize its industrial and tourism resources to accelerate the integration of tea and tourism, increase brand promotion efforts, continue tea art study tours, and invigorate rural tourism.
(Written and photographed by Wu Tintin)