Taiwanese farmers run thriving mountain tea businesses in SE China’s Fujian

Farmers from China’s Taiwan region have run flourishing tea businesses in Zhangping, a county-level city administered by Longyan city, southeast China’s Fujian Province.

The Zhangping Taiwan Farmers’ Pioneer Park, inaugurated in 2006 in Yongfu township, Zhangping, has attracted over 600 Taiwanese farmers, who operate 48 high-mountain tea planting bases, said Zhang Beiquan, deputy head of the management committee of the pioneer park.

Zhang added that the planting area of high-mountain tea has exceeded 50,000 mu (3,333 hectares). The annual tea output has surpassed 5,800 tonnes, generating a total output value of 1 billion yuan ($145.5 million). The pioneer park was selected as a national modern agricultural industrial park in 2008.

Xie Dongqing (right) from Taiwan instructs a local farmer to pick tea leaves in Zhangping, a county-level city administered by Longyan city, southeast China’s Fujian Province. (Photo courtesy of the management committee of the Zhangping Taiwan Farmers’ Pioneer Park)

Born in Zhanghua county, Taiwan, Xie Dongqing, in his 70s, is the first farmer from Taiwan to invest in building a tea garden in Zhangping.

“Taiwan’s high-mountain tea originated in Fujian. My ancestral home was in Fujian, so I wanted to find a suitable place to build a tea garden here,” Xie said.

In 1995, Xie came to Yongfu township for the first time and found that the altitude and climate and soil conditions of the township are similar to those of Ali Mountain in Taiwan, and are suitable for growing high-mountain oolong tea.

“With an average elevation of around 780 meters and an annual average temperature of 17.3 degrees Celsius, Yongfu township is in the subtropical monsoon climate zone and is free from industrial pollution,” Xie said, believing that high-quality tea can be produced in the town.

Xie then contracted over 600 mu of barren mountains in Houyu village in the township and created a tea garden there. He also founded the first Taiwan-funded tea company in Zhangping.

Xie has developed leisure agriculture with the theme of tea culture and turned his tea garden into an Instagram-worthy tourist destination, which can attract tens of thousands of visitors in a single day during the peak tourist season.

“I hope that more and more Taiwanese farmers will participate in agricultural exchanges and cooperation across the Taiwan Strait,” said Xie.

Inspired by Xie, batches of Taiwanese farmers have invested and started businesses in Yongfu town. It accommodates the largest number of Taiwanese individual investors and is the biggest high-mountain oolong tea planting base in the Chinese mainland.

Li Zhihong (first from left) from Taiwan and other Taiwanese business people check on the growth of tea leaves in Zhangping, a county-level city administered by Longyan city, southeast China’s Fujian Province. (Photo courtesy of the management committee of the Zhangping Taiwan Farmers’ Pioneer Park)

Li Zhihong, also a Taiwanese farmer, built a high-mountain oolong tea garden that covers an area of 2,500 mu in the township’s Lizhuang village, the birthplace of his father, in 2004.

At first, he experienced the “misery” of capital chain rupture because the building of the tea garden required an investment of more than 30,000 yuan per mu. It’s hard for him to apply for loans due to a lack of properties as collateral in the Chinese mainland. Fortunately, with the local government’s support, Li was granted 10 million yuan in loans.

Li said the local government now provides more preferential policies, such as granting certificates of forest and forestland tenure right for tea gardens, building paved roads leading to tea plants and B&B hotels, and offering subsidized loans with an interest rate of less than 1 percent and a 30 percent discount on electricity bills. In 2022 alone, over 20 million yuan in subsidized loans were granted to Li. He added that the local government has provided all-around services.

Zhangping Hongding Farm Development Co., Ltd. founded by Li, has built the largest modern plant of high-mountain oolong tea across the Taiwan Strait. The tea produced by the plant won a golden award at the 15th China International Agricultural Trade Fair.

“The Chinese mainland market offers opportunities for Taiwanese farmers, and tea can become a messenger for cross-Strait exchanges and cooperation,” Li said.

Chen Yunjia is the third generation of his family in Taiwan. Chen’s grandfather moved to Taiwan in 1948. Chen’s father built a tea garden of more than 600 mu in his hometown, Guantian township in Zhangping, in 2005. Ten years later, Chen followed in his father’s footsteps and began to run the tea garden.

Chen Yunjia (second from left) from Taiwan guides tourists to pick tea leaves in Zhangping, a county-level city administered by Longyan city, southeast China’s Fujian Province. (Photo/Lu Heqing)

Chen transformed his tea garden into an organic one and runs a B&B business there, providing visitors a place for sightseeing, leisure activities such as picking tea leaves and making tea, and educational tours.

“It’s not easy for tourists to get a room in my B&B hotel during the peak tourism season. Many of our rooms were booked for this year’s May Day holiday,” Chen said.

Ma Guiqiu, Party chief of Zhangping, said the Zhangping Taiwan Farmers’ Pioneer Park has set a model for the agricultural exchanges and cooperation between Fujian and Taiwan, adding that Zhangping city will spare no effort to better boost the development of the pioneer park.