Hunan is known as the “Land of Fish and Rice.” It ranks among the top in the nation for its output of rice, pork, oilseeds, vegetables, tea, freshwater products, citrus fruits, and traditional Chinese medicines.
For years, as a major agricultural province, Hunan has been characterized by high agricultural output but weak processing capabilities and low product added value. How can we ensure that high output translates into high efficiency, accelerating the transition from an agricultural powerhouse to a strong agricultural province?
Recently, Party Secretary Shen Xiaoming conducted research on the development of green agricultural products and food processing industries in Changsha and Yueyang. During his visit to Jinjing Town, he inspected the tea plantation of Hunan Xiangfeng Tea Group. The town's advanced experiences in tea production and processing, innovation, and cultural tourism integration have been reported by platforms such as Hunan Development and Reform, and Hunan Daily.
Extending the Industrial Chain: Integrating Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sectors
What can a single tea leaf bring? In Jinjing Town, Changsha County, a single tea leaf contributes to a comprehensive annual output value of 1.6 billion yuan.
In Xiangfeng Village, Jinjing Town, Changsha County, emerald-green tea plants stretch across the hillsides. Tea farmers are taking advantage of the sunny weather to weed and prune their tea gardens as we approach the season for harvesting White Dew tea.
The tea garden in Jinjing Town, Changsha County, is lush and verdant. Photo by Geng Pengbo, Hunan Daily Media Group.
“Decades ago, tea farmers in Jinjing earned only 20 yuan per day through picking and processing tea. Now, a tea farmer can easily earn up to 400 yuan in just one morning,” said Luo Guoyu, a staff member of the Jinjing Town government. By adopting precision farming and deep processing, the brands “Xiangfeng” and “Jinjing” have gained prominence. In 2018, “Changsha Green Tea,” with Jinjing Town's green tea at its core, was recognized as a national agricultural geographical indication protected product. Currently, the tea plantation area in Jinjing Town remains stable at over 30,000 mu, with an annual tea output of 22,500 tons.
The increased value of tea is thanks to the remarkable improvement in Tea processing capabilities. Hunan Xiangfeng Tea Group Co., Ltd. has an annual comprehensive processing capacity of 50,000 tons of tea. Xiangfeng Tea collaborates with the Hunan Tea Research Institute and Central South University to develop tea-making machinery, which is popular in major tea-producing provinces like Yunnan and Guizhou.
“The market for tea machinery used to be dominated by Japan. By adjusting parameters and improving equipment based on our needs, we have significantly enhanced our tea-making standards,” explained the staff member. The new production line can process tens of thousands of kilograms of tea daily, 30 times more efficient than before. This production line now covers all six major types of Chinese tea and has been purchased and used by over 300 tea enterprises, ranking first in market share nationwide.
In addition to tea-making equipment, Xiangfeng Group's tea tourism business is also thriving.
“Waking up to the sound of cuckoos, every breath filled with the scent of tea.” In Xiangfeng Village, we encountered a group of middle-aged and elderly tourists from Guangdong. Ms. Zhuang Xiuying, one of the visitors, shared that she enjoys drinking green tea produced in Jinjing Town and later saw pictures of the beautiful Xiangfeng Tea Estate online, which prompted her to organize a group visit. At the estate, visitors can not only pick tea and explore ancient tea gardens, but also camp and participate in or experience the making techniques of Changsha Green Tea and Changsha Black Tea, both intangible cultural heritage items. In the first half of this year, over 300,000 people visited the Xiangfeng Tea Estate for study tours and tourism.
Tang Chenlin, Chairman of Xiangfeng Group, noted that over the past two decades, the company has adhered to a strategy of integrated development, gradually growing into a national leading enterprise and the first batch of demonstration enterprises for the integration of primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors. Currently, the company owns 55,000 mu of tea gardens and manages 350,000 mu of contracted tea gardens across the province, benefiting nearly 200,000 households of farmers.
Under the leadership of Xiangfeng and Jinjing, two leading enterprises, Jinjing Town has made breakthroughs in the tea industry and integrated its development, earning titles such as the National Ten-Billion-Yuan Special Industry Town (Tea), Hunan Agricultural Special Town, and Hunan Key Town for Rural Tourism.
This year's Central Document No. 1 proposed promoting the integrated development of primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors in rural areas and accelerating the construction of a modern rural industrial system integrating agriculture, culture, and tourism. Hunan is stepping up the construction of bases integrating agriculture, culture, and tourism, promoting green and ecological cultivation, creating cultural IPs, and implementing a boutique project for rural leisure tourism.
Currently, there are 17,600 leisure agriculture businesses in the province, with over 4,500 large-scale leisure farms. These establishments receive 255 million visits annually, benefitting 770,000 households and linking 670,000 mu of bases, generating a revenue of 53.2 billion yuan last year.