Returning home to grow tea and start a business, leading the people to common prosperity
In the photo, Jin Fu'an picks tea in the high mountains
From giving up hunting to dealing in tea, and then to choosing to return home and start a business, establishing a tea farmers' professional cooperative, leading tea farmers to prosperity in the form of company + farmers, and growing into the county's major tea producer, now Jin Fu'an is thinking about how to seek a qualitative breakthrough in tea branding. A few days ago, accompanied by cadres from Nixi Town, the reporter went to Zhucun Village for an interview.
On the way to the tea base, the car wound back and forth along the mountain road, and Jin Fu'an took the opportunity to brief us on the situation. Zhucun Village and its surrounding areas have always been a tea-producing place. After the Nixi tea market gradually shrank, local tea farmers still had to travel to the nearest Guangang tea and mushroom market to sell, a round trip of dozens of li. Many tea farmers had their scattered tea leaves bought up at rock-bottom prices by door-to-door tea peddlers, who then mixed them with other tea leaves, damaging the reputation of Nixi tea outside.
Jin Fu'an first hunted in these mountains, and later began working away from home. During that time he did business in tea distribution. After learning about the current state of tea planting and business in his hometown, Jin Fu'an chose to return home to grow tea, lead tea farmers to prosperity, and revive the Nixi tea brand.
"Many things only become clear once you actually start doing them." The first problem encountered in growing tea was the capital investment and labor techniques for building tea gardens. Without enough funds and rich tea-growing experience, Jin Fu'an chose the company + farmers model, with surrounding farmers growing tea and the company purchasing it. To ensure tea quality kept up, in 2012 Jin Fu'an led the establishment of the Dongzhi County Fu'an Green Tea Farmers' Professional Cooperative. That year it produced 8,000 jin of tea, and by 2015 its tea output exceeded 20,000 jin. This year it has already produced 20,000 jin of dry tea. If not for the late spring cold, Jin Fu'an's tea output was expected to break through 30,000 jin.
At the foot of a mountain, Jin Fu'an parked the car and led us up the slope. "This is Jiangxi here. The locals call it Chutouchong, at an elevation of more than 500 m." After the rain, the air on the mountain was especially fresh. Because it is deep in the mountains, apart from tea pickers, no one comes here at all, let alone there being a road up the mountain. Stepping on stones in the stream, grabbing small branches, and treading on thick fallen leaves, it took us two hours to reach the summit. After passing the summit we came to a mountain hollow, where about 10 mu of tea trees covered the area. Jin Fu'an explained that he had relied on impressions left from hunting, and only found it last year. There are 300 mu of mountain in total nearby, with the tea distributed in patches, equivalent to 100 mu of tea garden altogether.
The pure wild tea trees growing naturally in the deep old-growth mountains at an elevation of about 500 m are mostly more than 200 years old. With no artificial fertilizing or pesticide spraying, the tea trees grow relying on organic matter such as fallen leaves and soil, and the tea absorbs the fragrance of the surrounding flowers, grasses and trees. "The taste is sweeter, and the aroma is pleasant. The several hundred jin picked last year were all snapped up by customers from Hefei and Anqing," Jin Fu'an told the reporter.
At six in the evening, after coming down from the tea mountain, we arrived at Jin Fu'an's Jincheng Fumin Tea Co., Ltd. The sun had set, but it was bustling here. People who had come from nearby were still queuing to sell fresh leaves, while machines in the production workshop ran nonstop and workers busily hurried about... Two customers from Qianshan were visiting the tea-making workshop. Cheng Wanjun is an old customer of Jin Fu'an, and this year on his recommendation, Cheng Junlai of Qianshan County Miaoshan Tea Co., Ltd., with annual sales of 600,000 jin of tea, also came to inspect and discuss cooperation. "This is my first time coming to take a look. The tea quality here is good, and we plan long-term cooperation." After negotiation between the two sides, Cheng Junlai placed an on-the-spot order for 2,800 jin and asked to haul it away overnight.
With an annual tea output of more than 20,000 jin, because brand marketing has not kept up, Jin Fu'an's tea is basically sold wholesale, and the profit margin is controlled by others. "At present, the 300 mu of deep-mountain wild tea that has been discovered, plus the Anji white tea that I successfully introduced and planted, have already come onto the market one after another, and will be the breakthrough point for the company's next step in brand marketing." Before leaving, Jin Fu'an took advantage of the night to talk with the reporter about future development, and his thinking became clearer and clearer.