County in south China's Guangxi enters early spring tea harvest season (4)

Tea growers show newly-harvested tea leaves in Lingshan county, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. (Photo/Zhao Guanxiong)

Farmers have begun picking tea leaves at tea plantations in Lingshan county, Qinzhou city, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, as the spring tea harvest season arrived in the locality right after the Spring Festival holiday.

Lingshan county has maintained its tradition of tea planting for more than 500 years. This year, the county has been one of the earliest tea-producing regions in the country to start harvesting spring tea leaves.

During this year's spring tea harvest season, Lingshan is expected to harvest 800 tons of fresh spring tea leaves and sell them mainly to Guangdong, Hunan, Hubei and Sichuan provinces at around 200 yuan ($29.6) per kilogram . This means the total output value of spring tea leaves in the county will reach around 160 million yuan (about $23.68 million).

Lingshan green tea was put on the list of national famous, special, high-quality and new agricultural products unveiled by the then Ministry of Agriculture of China in 2013, 2015 and 2017 respectively. In April 2020, Lingshan green tea was recognized as a national geographical indication product.

The total tea planting area in Lingshan county has reached 76,500 mu (5,100 hectares), ranking sixth in Guangxi. The output of dry tea leaves in the county is 16,200 tons, generating a total output value of 732 million yuan (about $108.34 million). There are more than 100,000 people working in the tea industry in Lingshan, earning an annual average income of 25,000 yuan ($3700) from the business.