At the beginning of the New Year, tea buds in Tea God Valley, Puan County, Qianxinan Prefecture, have quietly sprouted; a touch of new green breathes the splendor of heaven and earth, signaling the deep warmth of spring.
On January 1st, the National Early Tea Conference and the 2025 “Guizhou Green Tea” First Harvest event—hosted by the Guizhou Tea Association and organized by Guizhou Puan Black Tea Industry (Group) Co., Ltd. and the Puan County Tea Association—was held in Puan County, Qianxinan Prefecture, a world-renowned tea source.
On-site at the National Early Tea Conference and the 2025 “Guizhou Green Tea” First Harvest event.
Yang Yongying, member of the Party Leadership Group and Deputy Director of the Standing Committee of the Guizhou Provincial People’s Congress; Mohammed Ahmadi, Counselor of the Embassy of the Republic of Yemen in China; Song Baoan, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and President of Guizhou University; Ye Xin, former Vice Chairman of the China Writers Association and renowned writer; Chen Changxu, Secretary of the Qianxima Prefecture CPC Committee; Luo Chunhong, Director of the Standing Committee of the Qianxima Prefecture People’s Congress; Long Qiang, Deputy Governor of the Qianxima Prefecture People’s Government and Party Secretary of Puan County; and leaders from relevant provincial departments, tea industry organizations, tea distributors from within and outside the province, and news media—a total of 500 people attended the launch ceremony. Liu Zhonghua, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and President of Hunan Normal University, sent a congratulatory video; Mu Degui, former Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Deputy Director of the Guizhou Provincial People’s Congress Standing Committee and President of the Guizhou Tea Association, announced the start of the harvest.
Chen Changxu, Secretary of the Qianxima Prefecture CPC Committee, delivered a speech.
Chen Changxu, Secretary of the Qianxima Prefecture CPC Committee, on behalf of the Qianxima Prefecture CPC Committee, the Prefecture Government, and all ethnic groups in the prefecture, expressed sincere welcome and heartfelt thanks to all leaders and guests. He stated that Qianxima adheres to the principle that “clean tea is the lifeline of the tea industry,” ensuring a full processing cycle with no leaves left behind; the tea can be even enjoyed without rinsing after brewing, and tea from core production areas has passed over 500 EU indicators, making it truly ecological, safe, and reliable tea. In 2022, testing by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs showed that the physicochemical and hygienic standards of early spring green tea in Qianxima Prefecture all exceeded national standards, with the tea’s water-soluble solids content being 13.9 percentage points higher than the national standard. Currently, Qianxima Prefecture has a tea garden area of 628,100 mu and 268 tea enterprises, with an annual output value of 4.158 billion yuan, benefiting 42,000 households and a total of over 215,000 people.
Mei Yu, Vice President of the China Tea Circulation Association, delivered a speech.
In his speech, Mei Yu, Vice President of the China Tea Circulation Association, affirmed the excellent ecological environment and unique quality of Guizhou green tea, and expressed high hopes for the development of Puan County’s tea industry. He hoped that Puan County would use this event as an opportunity to comprehensively promote the quality and efficiency of the tea industry; further explore and expand the unique qualitative advantages of Puan tea—”old, early, clean, and fragrant”—by increasing technological efforts in variety selection and breeding; continue to optimize and improve the cultivation and processing of the “Baiye No. 1” characteristic tea variety; enhance the quality and market competitiveness of Puan tea products through digitalization and standardization; focus on the “early” tea characteristics of Puan to refine product advantages and shape brand highlights; and seize the development opportunities of the “first-delivery economy” to promote production-sales matching, turning Puan’s “early” tea into a beautiful calling card for the tea industry nationwide and even globally.
Ye Xin, former Vice Chairman of the China Writers Association and renowned writer, delivered a speech.
Ye Xin, former Vice Chairman of the China Writers Association and renowned writer, has participated in the “Guizhou Green Tea First Harvest” event held in Puan County for five consecutive years. He shared his feelings after tasting Puan early tea. He said that for the past five years, on New Year’s Day every year, he has come to this lush tea slope called “Tea God Valley,” not far from Puan County town, to pick the first tea buds of spring. Walking onto the inviting tea slope, the tiny, tender, and lush green tea buds are strikingly visible before my eyes, one bud with two leaves. Spring arrives exceptionally early here. Let us use the earliest message of spring sent by Tea God Valley, and through the fresh fragrance of spring tea, welcome the arrival of the New Year.
Song Baoan, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and President of Guizhou University, delivered a speech.
Song Baoan, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and President of Guizhou University, introduced that Puan tea adheres to integrating ecological concepts throughout the entire process of planting, managing, processing, and selling tea. “Making clean tea and earning clean money” has become the fundamental principle observed by Puan tea practitioners, and ecology, cleanliness, and health have also become the most beautiful calling cards for Puan tea. Guizhou University and Puan County have long established a good cooperative relationship. In the next step, focusing on “variety, quality, and brand,” and based on the fundamental advantages of Puan County’s tea industry, Guizhou University will fully leverage its advantages in disciplines, talent, technology, and research achievements to conduct multi-channel, multi-level, and multi-form exchanges and cooperation with Puan to promote the high-quality development of the tea industry through technological empowerment.
Yao Mingzhe, Deputy Director of the Tea Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, delivered a speech.
Yao Mingzhe, Deputy Director of the Tea Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, introduced in his speech that Puan is the origin of Siquan tea. It not only possesses primitive, ancient, and large-scale wild populations of Siquan tea but also has over 100,000 mu of early-growing, high-quality clonal tea tree varieties planted. The combination of specially early-growing modern cultivated varieties and superior climatic conditions has brought about the grand spectacle of the “Guintzhou Green Tea” First Harvest, allowing tea lovers to present a cup of new tea as the New Year bells ring, tasting the flavor of spring in advance. He stated that the Tea Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences will further strengthen cooperation with Puan County, enhance the integration and innovation of technology and industry, help cultivate new quality productive forces for the tea industry, and assist the high-quality development of Puan’s tea industry to reach new heights.
Mu Degui, former Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Deputy Director of the Guizhou Provincial People’s Congress Standing Committee and President of the Provincial Tea Association, announced the opening.
Mu Degui, former Secretary of the Party Leadership for the Qianxima Prefecture CPC Committee and President of the Provincial Tea Association, pointed out that this year marks the fifth consecutive year of the “Guizhou Green Tea” First Harvest event and the second consecutive year that the National Early Tea Conference has been held in Puan. On February 19, 2024, the National Early Tea Trading Market was completed and put into use in Puan County; on that day, the early tea transaction volume reached over 1.6 million yuan, and the cumulative transaction volume for early tea in 2024 reached 380 million yuan, showing a positive trend of both supply and demand. The popularity, reputation, and market share of Guizhou early tea are steadily increasing, earning the widespread welcome and love of consumers. The raw tea market in the core area of Guizhou early tea starts from New Year’s Day and remains hot through the Qingming and Grain Rain seasons, attracting a large number of top domestic merchants to compete for the purchase of Guizhou early tea. In the future, Guizhou will continue to hold the National Early Tea Conference and the “Guizhou Green Tea” First Harvest series of activities, deeply explore and promote Guizhou tea culture, continuously strengthen production-sales matching, increase efforts in brand building and promotion for early tea, so that more people understand “Guintzhou Green Tea,” fall in love with “Guizhou Green Tea,” and work together to protect “Guizhou Green Tea.”
Mao Limin, Chairman of Zhejiang Chaboshi Biotechnology Co., Ltd., delivered a speech.
In his speech, Mao Limin, Chairman of Zhejiang Chaboshi Biotechnology Co., Ltd., introduced that he established a connection with Puan in 2018 due to the “Baiye No. 1” Gratitude Tea Garden. Puan has significant advantages in climatic conditions; not only is the early tea harvested early, but its quality is also quite excellent, featuring the characteristics of being “old, early, clean, and fragrant,” and it is also rich in zinc and selenium, giving Puan tea a very high level of recognition in the market and making it deeply loved by consumers. Starting every January, the company organizes personnel to enter Puan to purchase early tea, selling Puan early tea to Beijing, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong, and other places, allowing consumers to taste the first cup of early tea for the New Year at the earliest opportunity.
Jiang Zhidong, Executive Director of Fujian Zhengshantang Tea Co., Ltd., delivered a speech.
Jiang Zhidong, Executive Director of Fujian Zhengshantang Tea Co., Ltd., told the story of the marriage between Zhengshantang and Puan Black Tea. Among all the tea-producing regions nationwide where Zhengshantang operates, the various physicochemical indicators of Puan Black Tea perform exceptionally well. Supported by the dual brands of “Fujian Zhengshantang” and “Guizhou Puan Red,” Zhengshantang·Puan Red has successively established over 100 distribution outlets in 32 large and medium-sized cities across Beijing, Shanghai, Northeast, Northwest, and Guizhou. With the care and support of the Ministry of Public Security, Puan Black Tea has become a welfare tea for police officers and was presented as an official gift to foreign friends in April 2024. In 2022, the brand value of “Zhengshantang·Puan Red” reached 80.6 million yuan, ranking 6th among Guizhou tea brands, and it was honored as a provincial-level key leading enterprise for agricultural industrialization in Guizhou Province.
At the event, there was an award ceremony for “Puan County Tea Culture Development Consultant,” “Puan County Tea Industry Development Consultant,” “Puan County Tea Technology Development Consultant,” “Puan County Tea Industry Publicity Consultant,” “Puan Tea Promotion Ambassador,” “Puan Tea Excellent Purchaser,” and “Puan Tea Recommendation Officer,” as well as on-scale signing by purchasers.
Puan County possesses great resource endowments, with excellent tea quality and geographical natural advantages such as high altitude, low latitude, and abundant clouds and mist; the soil is rich in organic humus, and geothermal resources are abundant, which is conducive to early budding of tea trees. The early spring tea is harvested about 20 days earlier than in other parts of the country, making it one of the earliest tea-harvesting regions for spring tea in the nation. In 2022, Puan County was awarded by the Guizhou Provincial Tea Industry Development Leading Group as the “permanent first harvest site” for “Guizhou Green Tea,” with New Year’s Day each year designated as the first harvest day for “Guizhou Green Tea.”
Currently, the total tea garden area of Puan County is 183,000 mu, with 208 tea-related market entities, including 1 national-level leading enterprise, 1 national top-500 cooperative demonstration society, 4 provincial-level leading enterprises, and 16 prefecture-level leading enterprises. In 2024, the production of dry tea reached 9,700.19 tons, with a dry tea output value of 1.328 billion yuan.
Produced by: China Cooperation Times · Tea Weekly All-Media
Author: Wang Jing,
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Author: Lam Sam (LamSam), the Old Tea Head
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