The tea product has brought rapid development to a previously impoverished swathe of Guizhou province, report Cheng Yuezhu in Beijing and Yang Jun in Guiyang.

Tea plantations have turned the once-barren mountains into a land of hope in Guizhou province. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Many cities in Southwest China's Guizhou province have benefited from growing tea, but Tongren city has used matcha as a novel approach to creating various tea products in recent years.

Luoxiang village in Nuxi town, Jiangkou county, for instance, has been keeping up and cooperating with companies producing matcha.

Yang Maohua, who's now Luoxiang's Party chief, was a pioneer in recognizing tea planting's potential and started developing the industry in the village.

Traditional brewed tea mainly uses spring tea leaves ... Matcha production allows the tea leaves picked in summer and autumn to be used and generates income year-round

Que Conghan, general manager of Luoxiang Tea Co

Before tea was introduced, the village was afflicted by barren land and poverty. Its terrain was mostly uncultivated, and villagers frequently experienced poor harvests.

Like many villagers at the time, Yang left the mountains for big cities as a young adult, working different jobs.

He later returned to his hometown and worked as a driver becoming one of the first locals to earn a decent living.

He decided to devote himself to helping other villagers overcome poverty. He ran for village head and was elected by a majority vote in 2006.

In 2007, Jiangkou county's government planned to develop tea as the main industry in Nuxi town.

Tea planters harvest in early spring in Jiangkou county, Tongren city, in Guizhou province. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

While most villagers were skeptical as to whether tea would actually improve their lives, Yang took the initiative to plant tea and encouraged others to transfer their farmland for collective use. That year, the village grew assorted tea varieties on 27 hectares.

Yang continued to experiment with new ways to increase harvests and develop the local tea industry.

He also registered the Luoxiang village tea cooperative and a tea-processing plant, Luoxiang Tea Co, selling nearly 300,000 yuan (US$43,000) worth that year.

The village became one of the first to cooperate with bigger tea enterprises to sell its products outside. In 2015, Gui Tea Co Ltd, one of Guizhou's biggest tea companies, sought to add matcha to its products.

"The traditional brewed tea is a slow-moving product," Gui Tea general manager Hu Qingshuang says.

"Its output is greater than its sales, and the market has reached saturation. But, there's considerable demand for matcha."

The Gui Tea Industrial Park and the Tongren Gui Tea brand were established in Jiangkou county in 2017, after purchasing facilities and successfully developing manufacturing methods.

Luoxiang village started cooperating with Gui Tea in 2018, building a processing plant specially for matcha and signing a long-term contract with the company in technical guidance, sales and brand upgrading.

"With the help of Gui Tea, our plantation has expanded to 1,066 hectares, about 0.2 hectare per capita, and each hectare can yield 90,000 yuan in revenue," says Que Conghan, deputy head of the village and general manager of Luoxiang Tea Co.

"Our village now has four tea-processing plants and over 260 tea-processing machines."

Tongren Gui Tea produces a variety of matcha products. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

One of the most evident advantages of matcha, Que says, is that its raw materials are not as restricted as traditional tea.

"Traditional brewed tea mainly uses spring tea leaves, so the plantations used to only harvest in the spring. Matcha production allows the tea leaves picked in summer and autumn to be used and generates income year-round."

The cooperation has helped the village solve the problem of tea sales. And the tea factories have provided sufficient job opportunities for locals－so much so that they now go to other towns to recruit workers.

"Our tea plantations meet international standards and have stricter management requirements," Que says.

"So, we're able to provide more jobs for villagers, and their salaries are also at least 10 percent more than before. We pay around 2.3 million yuan to our workers annually."

Yang also says that the tea and matcha production has substantially improved local living conditions.

"Eight percent of households now have a car. Over 300 families have renovated their houses, and many have bought residences downtown."

More villages in Nuxi are following Luoxiang village's lead. The town hosts over 10 tea-processing plants, including six for matcha, and 18 production lines. About 2,000 hectares of tea fields have been planted.

Tongren Gui Tea has been awarded several international certifications, including the Rainforest Standard, ISO 9001, ISO 22000 and the AIB Standards, allowing it to enter international markets.

"Our matcha powder is now exported to companies around the world, including in the United States, Germany, France and Brazil," Hu says.

"Last year, our exports accounted for one-10th of our total sales."

The company is experimenting with its own matcha products by establishing a matcha institute in Guizhou's capital, Guiyang, to develop a wide range of matcha products, such as cakes, ice creams and biscuits.

The institute also allows visitors to make their own matcha lattes to provide an enhanced experience and promote matcha culture.

Contact the writers through chengyuezhu@chinadaily.com.cn