Oil tea has high use value, so why are there not many people growing it?

Summary: Oil tea is a treasure from head to toe, so why is it not planted in large quantities?

China's total supply of edible oil has risen year by year, reaching 34.527 million tons in 2016 (excluding the previous year's inventory), but the share of imports has remained above 19.4% since 2008. Since China's demand for vegetable oil still has such a large gap, why is camellia oil rarely seen on the market? The main reason is that growing oil tea trees involves the following two risks.

First, the initial investment is large and the payback period is long. It takes seven to eight years from planting oil tea seedlings to the full fruiting period. Before entering the full fruiting period, costs for seedlings, land preparation, labor, and fertilizer are needed, with about 1,500 yuan to 2,000 yuan invested per mu. For ten mu, that is 15,000 to 20,000 yuan. In addition, the oil tea tree has a long growth cycle, and the first six years require continuous investment of funds with no income. The investment for ten mu over six years is about 100,000 yuan. This is the biggest constraint for farmers. If the funding chain breaks midway, all previous efforts will be wasted.

Second, oil tea has low oil content and unstable yields. Old varieties of oil tea have very low yields, with only 5 kg of oil produced per mu of tea fruit. To expand production, the forestry planting area can be expanded or high-yield oil tea tree varieties can be selected. Improved high-yield, high-quality tea fruit can produce about 50 kg of oil per mu, but oil tea trees need seven to eight years to enter the full fruiting period before it can be known whether they are high-yield varieties. This time cost is enormous, and it is also the reason many growers hesitate.

Large investment, slow returns, low oil content, the selection of high-yield tea tree seedlings, and high risk all reduce farmers' enthusiasm for planting and restrict the large-scale cultivation of oil tea.

Oil tea is a treasure from head to toe. In addition to producing camellia oil, it is also an important raw material for food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and chemicals, and its economic value is very high. After fully considering the above risks, if growers have sufficient funds and mountain forest resources, growing oil tea is actually a very good planting project. In order to encourage the planting of oil tea trees, improve domestic oil varieties, and raise the quality of people's edible oil and farmers' incomes, the state provides planting subsidies to growers who plant oil tea trees, reducing growers' early-stage costs and increasing everyone's enthusiasm for growing oil tea.

Oil tea is a forest tree that produces oil. After entering the full fruiting period in the seventh year, the per-unit yield of oil tea trees will continue to increase, and the full fruiting period can last as long as 50 to 60 years. Oil tea is planted once and yields for many years, and the long-term benefits can benefit several generations.

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