Shouning Oolong Tea Villagers Becoming Wealthy

A success story of tea villages Shouning county. While tea farmers in Shouning used to earn a little from all the hard work they put in to grow tea leaves, this has changed this year. “Thanks to the village to guide to planting tea plants business has improved significantly! From spring to now, I made 30,000 yuan (5000 USD). My daughter and I are going to build a new house near the ocean side ……” says farmer Wang happily.

714 meters above sea level, the main source of income of the Bangyang tea villagers is oolong tea. Farmer Heng Yuan planted 10 acres of oolong tea but this usually only leads to an annual income of only 10,000 yuan (1600 USD). In order to support two daughters, Heng Yuan had to work outside the home in addition to picking outside, his personal financial situation used to be very tight.

Starting 2003, the village committee decided to guide farmers to improve the oolong tea quality and to provide loans to ease financial problems and finance invest in new varieties of oolong tea. Now the village produces nearly 300 million yuan (50 million USD) annually and the average tea farmer earns an average household income of 15,000 yuan. Nowadays, 80% of village people have moved into the spacious and bright brick houses.