Zhou Yu, a deputy to the People's Congress of Changsha county, has helped to propel the development of tea industry in Jinjing town of the county, Central China's Hunan province.
The outsourced tea gardens Zhou developed in the town have brought job opportunities as well as fortune to local farmers, www.cnchemicals.com reported on Feb 3.
Zhou Yu, the general manager of the Jinjing Tea Factory in Changsha county, Hunan province [Photo/www.cnchemicals.com]
Under Zhou's management, the Jinjing Tea Factory, a tea producer with an annual output value of 10 million yuan ($160,000) in the past, has now grown into a large enterprise integrated with tea cultural tourism. Its annual output value has leaped to hundreds of millions of yuan currently.
So far, more than 480 regular employees are working for the Jinjing Tea Factory and its affiliated companies. They also hire additional 1500 workers during peak season for tea production. More than 90 percent of the workers are farmers from the neighboring villages and towns, whose per capita annual income reaches roughly 30,000 yuan.
Workers are busy picking tea in a tea garden in Jinjing town, Changsha county [File photo/www.cnchemicals.com]
Zhou, the general manager of the Jinjing Tea Factory, has also provided a stable revenue channel for local farmers through contracting out tea gardens in his production base to local peasant households. A total of 75,000 mu (5,000 hectares) contracted tea field have contributed to around 50,000 farmer households.
"We plan to invest over 70 million yuan for the construction of a tea eco expo park and tea technology industrial park for the next stage,' Zhou said, adding that he seeks to build a famous modern tea enterprise with an aim of increasing farmers' income.