Spring Tea in Heping Town, Fujian Helps Realize the Dream of Starting a Business and Getting Rich

Spring is the season when all things revive, the beginning of the tea plant's annual growth, and also the key season when tea accounts for a large proportion of the annual output and has good quality. Usually, spring tea output accounts for 40%-50% of the annual total, and its output value exceeds 50% of the annual total. Therefore, great importance must be attached to spring tea production.

After the tea plant undergoes winter dormancy, by spring the nutrients accumulated in the plant reach their highest level. In addition, abundant spring rainfall, mild climate, and few pests and diseases constitute the conditions for high yield and high quality of spring tea. Spring tea begins in April and ends in mid-to-late May. In just over 1 month, 50% of the year's tea must be picked. Time is tight and the task is heavy. Moreover, this coincides with the busy farming season. If arrangements are improper, new shoots can easily grow too large and become old, directly affecting the quality of spring tea. Below, let us look at a case of getting rich through spring tea.

“Thanks to the entrepreneurship training, the quality of the spring tea produced by my family this year has been greatly improved, and it has also sold for a good price. With 18 mu of tea, income increased by nearly 10,000 yuan compared with last year.” On August 19, Yang Yonglong, a one-child household and major tea grower in Chunwei Village, Heping Town, Zhangping City, Fujian Province, told reporters happily, “I am very grateful for the government's help, which allowed me to realize my entrepreneurial dream right at my doorstep.”

In the spring of this year, Yang Yonglong's new tea finally came onto the market. Because the tea quality was good, the price of his new tea was nearly double that of others. Others sold at 100 yuan per jin, while his sold at 180 yuan. From spring tea alone, his family earned a net income of more than 36,000 yuan. In fact, Yang Yonglong's entrepreneurial path was not smooth sailing, but full of ups and downs.

He had served as a soldier in his early years and returned home after being discharged in the autumn of 2000, married, and had children. At that time, because the child was still young, his wife could only stay at home to care for the child. He was the only laborer in the family, so he could only grow some rice and occasionally do odd jobs to get by. Over a year, income was only more than 3,000 yuan. For a family, such income was not much, and life was very hard. In order to change this situation, he kept thinking hard about what industry he could develop to make money, and to make more money.

In the spring of 2003, Yang Yonglong saw that many farmers in neighboring townships had become rich by growing tea, so he took his family to reclaim wasteland and tried planting 3 mu of Shuixian tea. During the process, he encountered technical difficulties from time to time, such as tea leaves turning yellow, slow growth, and poor tea-making skills. Not only did he fail to make money, he almost lost money. One day in May 2003, when he went to the Heping Town Family Planning Office to apply for a one-child honor certificate, during the conversation, cadres at the Heping Town Family Planning Office learned that he had encountered many difficulties in tea production. The family planning office cadres promptly contacted technical personnel from the town agricultural technology station and tea experts from neighboring townships, and from time to time invited them to visit and provide technical guidance and help to Yang Yonglong in tea production, cultivation, and processing. In the autumn of 2005, Yang Yonglong became increasingly skilled in the cultivation, management, and processing techniques of Shuixian tea, and had also figured out a set of experience suitable for himself. That year, his family's tea achieved both increased output and increased income, obtained a good harvest, and embarked on the road to moderate prosperity.

After tasting the sweetness of success, Yang Yonglong became more confident and expanded the planting scale every year. In 2007, Yang Yonglong led the establishment of a tea cooperative, driving 12 family planning households to grow tea together and “join forces to build wealth.” In June last year, village officials stationed in the village also helped Yang Yonglong arrange participation in an entrepreneurship training class held in Zhangping City, which greatly improved his tea cultivation, management, and processing level, allowing him to increase income considerably from the same per-mu yield. Now, with strong support from the Heping Town Party Committee and government, Yang Yonglong grows tea and starts a business, planting 18 mu of tea. He has not only realized his own entrepreneurial dream, but also brought 15 jobs to family planning households in the town.

Yang Yonglong, after becoming rich, did not forget his fellow villagers and did not forget to give back to society. Yang Yonglong told reporters that he wants to further develop a “hundred-mu Shuixian tea garden” and build his family's tea enterprise into a local leading enterprise, so as to enhance market competitiveness, better play a demonstrative and driving role, and lead more farmer households to become rich and well-off through developing tea production.

Spring tea is the tea with the highest character and the most expensive selling price of the year. Starting a business in rural areas is like tasting a sip of spring tea: you need to savor it carefully and slowly feel its inner flavor and spirit! The same principle applies to rural wealth-generating projects, which also require you to slowly ponder and reflect.