Yang Zaiwen: Golden tea is a big industry for our farmers to get rich.

Yang Zaiwen instructs tea farmers to pick tea

Xiangxi in July is full of sunshine like gold. In the tea garden of the Xingfu Valley Tea Professional Cooperative in Pingnian Village, Daozhai Town, Jishou City, Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Hunan Province, the reporter was fortunate to see that Yang Zaiwen, chairman of the cooperative, was studying the autumn tea picking plan with tea farmers. Yang Zaiwen, who is usually not good at words, once the chatterbox is opened, the words are full of passionate sparks of thought.

Reporter: Hello, Boss Yang! How did you form a bond with tea?

Yang Zaiwen: "the child has no mother, it's a long story." Pingnian Village, where my family is located, is a typical poor shanzhai inhabited by the Miao nationality. Agricultural production belongs to primitive simple reproduction, the ability of capital accumulation is very low, and farmers themselves do not have the economic conditions to establish an industry. However, our village is adjacent to the golden tea producing area of Baojing County, which is surrounded by clouds and fog all the year round, mysterious and simple, special geographical conditions and good ecological environment, which is suitable for the natural growth of tea. According to the record of Jiajing in Ming Shizong, golden tea is recorded as tribute tea, and the earliest ancient tea tree can be traced back to 402 years.

"Golden Tea" is an ancient and rare local tea variety resource in western Hunan. With the quality characteristics of "high amino acid, high tea polyphenols, high water extract" and "fragrant, green, cool and strong", it is regarded as one of the best green teas in China. We all know that Hunan people have the character of "eating hard, patient, not afraid of death, domineering", and Xiangxi people are even more representative, which is closely related to Xiangxi people's love of drinking Xiangxi golden tea since ancient times.

Yang Yuebin, commander of the navy of the Hunan Army in the late Qing Dynasty, drank golden tea from his hometown every day, and his spirit after tea was heartened, and he led the navy of the Hunan Army to kill in all directions and make meritorious service.

The first generation of Miao female drum Wang long Yingtang, her excellent drumming skills are the crystallization of more than 60 years of hard work, and she must drink a cup of golden tea when practicing drums. In 1957, long Yingtang went to Beijing to participate in a special performance arranged for Chairman Mao and other central leaders. After the party, Chairman Mao went to the stage to meet the actors, and long Yingtang recommended his hometown tea to Chairman Mao, which was greatly praised by Chairman Mao.

Especially when I was very young, I heard "carrying Tea on Beijing" on the radio. When I heard this song for the first time, I, who had not yet come out of the small mountain village, felt the desire to take my family tea to Beijing for the central leaders to drink when I grew up. As a result, I was infected by the beautiful melody of the song, which left a deep impression on my young heart.

On November 3, 2013, President Xi visited western Hunan and put forward "accurate poverty alleviation". "precise poverty alleviation" means to open a lock with one key, and poverty alleviation must be adapted to local conditions. Today, I would like to thank President Xi. It is President Xi's precise poverty alleviation policy that has made me the biggest beneficiary. President Xi has brought a happy life to our Miao family. I am an ordinary tea farmer. I have no other thanks. I just want to carry tea to Beijing and present my best tea to President Xi. As my favorite song sings: Mulberry pole is light and light, I carry tea out of the mountain village.

Reporter: boss Yang, you said that it was President Xi's precise poverty alleviation policy that made you get rid of poverty and become rich.

Yang Zaiwen: I am 41 years old. I worked abroad for 12 years before planting golden tea, and my income could barely maintain food and clothing. In 2010, considering that my parents are in their 80s and that their children are in primary school and need to be taken care of, my brothers and sisters are working outside, so I decided to go back to my hometown to honor their parents and raise their children. In 2011, I learned that the government is going to help the poor through development and vigorously support the tea industry, and the soil and climate of our village are very suitable for growing golden tea, so I planted tea seedlings on all 7 mu of land in my family. In June 2012, I wanted to expand the scale and rented 100 mu of land in the village at the price of 1200 yuan per mu. The technology and tea seedlings are supported by the government. I hired more than 40 people to level off, dig trenches, open boxes, pull strings, and plant seedlings. It took me more than a month to plant them. At this time, the working savings have paid the rent and wages, and there is not much left. At this time, several families in the village wanted to go out to work and were willing to rent 50 mu of land to me at the price of 500 yuan per mu, but asked to pay the 15-year rent first. The rent for 15 years was 270000 yuan. I scraped together and finally got a loan from the bank before I reluctantly rented the land. It was like a gamble, and I was still a little excited when I thought of borrowing money to rent land. If that planting failed, I would have nothing left and I would still be in debt. But golden tea is such a good business opportunity, I must not miss it, and I believe it will not fail!

It's fair to say that I made the right bet. At the end of 2013, President Xi proposed accurate poverty alleviation, and I enjoyed the accurate poverty alleviation policy, which expanded from 180 mu to 350 mu. In February 2014, all tea growers in Pingnian Village formed a professional cooperative of Happy Valley Tea, and the villagers elected me as its chairman. At present, the total planting area has reached more than 1600 mu, with an annual output of nearly 2 tons of dry tea. In order to reduce the transportation time of fresh leaves, cooperatives built factories, purchased equipment, processed fresh leaves themselves, and increased the added value of tea products. And my "Happy Valley Miao Drum King" trademark has been registered, the brand is gradually playing out.

Reporter: boss Yang, how do you ensure the quality of tea? what is the current business situation?

Yang Zaiwen: the quality of tea is very important. We do not apply pesticides or chemical fertilizers, but mainly apply farm manure such as tea withered, tung withered and sheep dung, and uniformly use solar energy insecticidal lights to eliminate diseases and insect pests and improve the degree of intensification. Planting to the garden area, large-scale, standardization, high-grade forward, in strict accordance with the organic tea standard cultivation and control management. I follow every step, and I think that's the key. What I do is high-quality products, high-quality products, need high-quality management, need to start from every detail in order to maintain a high-quality brand.

Pick tea carefully, one batch of spring tea every 3-4 days and one batch of summer and autumn tea every 15 days. Repeated picking in batches can not only ensure and improve the quality of tea production, but also promote the continuous germination of tea buds and increase the yield of tea. Picking quality requires bud leaves to be complete, fresh and clean, without stalks, tea fruits, old leaves, diseased leaves, insect leaves and so on.

The heat of stir-fried tea is accurate, knead the tea gently and bake it with firewood charcoal, so that the tea tastes particularly mellow. If a product is not good, I'd rather throw it away or make a specimen. I will make work records and record the characteristics of each product. Every time I serve tea, I will taste it myself and strive to produce fine products.

The promotion of products is also very important, but do not plan fast, do not blindly pursue economic benefits, good quality things, in order to gain a firm foothold in the market. Every one of my products will guarantee its quality.

Therefore, now our tea is mainly sold to Beijing, Shanghai, Inner Mongolia, Suzhou, Wuxi, Guangzhou, Wuhan and Changsha. Last time, several people in Shenzhen specially drove a car to buy tea and said it was taken to England. To tell you the truth, my tea is really in short supply.

Interviewer: you are very successful. What is the core value of your success?

Yang Zaiwen: a fence with three stakes and a hero with three gangs. My success is inseparable from the help of the local government and banks, and I have given great support in marketing and product promotion. When some bosses go out to talk business, they will bring some tea to help me publicize it. I think this is also very important.

Reporter: now the competition in the tea industry is fierce, where is the biggest advantage of your product?

Yang Zaiwen: the advantage of my product is quality. I think we should put it first. Now everyone is doing it, there will be pressure, the whole Xiangxi Golden Tea is a big brand, but our market share is different. My current output is not very large, but the sales are successful. This is based on the charm of my own "Happy Valley Miao Drum King" brand, which has attracted a large number of consumers. I don't think competition is dragging the enterprise back, it is a boost to encourage you to move forward. We should be the cake maker, not the cake eater.

Reporter: the competition in the tea industry is very fierce, and there is also a phenomenon of price competition. What do you think of this? In addition, how to grasp the brand of tea and develop healthily?

Yang Zaiwen: I attended the Tea Fair in Changsha and gained a lot. A good enterprise should attach importance to corporate culture and management, so as to ensure that quality and brand have a firm foothold in the market. Now the competition in the tea industry is very fierce. But I will not compete with the products of farmers because I make high-end products.

Interviewer: did you ever think about renting so much land? what if you fail?

Yang Zaiwen: I am very confident. At that time, I thought that as long as I paid hard, I could do a good job in this Happy Valley Tea Co-operative.

Interviewer: where does this confidence come from?

Yang Zaiwen: it stems from the fact that the quality of our tea is very good, with a unique climate and natural environment, which is one of the best places to make tea. I have first-hand information, coupled with my own marketing concept, I firmly believe that I should be able to sell tea to other places. And I have also compared the tea of my counterparts all over the country. I think our tea is not inferior to that of any other place. So I am confident that there is no word "failure" in my life dictionary.

Reporter: I heard that you have arranged a lot of left-behind old people to work in the tea garden, right?

Yang Zaiwen: yes, I recruited 25 women and old people in the village who had difficulties but could not go out to work to the tea garden of the cooperative so that they could pick tea and do odd jobs, with a monthly salary of more than 1000 yuan, so that they could not miss the farm work and increase their economic income. Therefore, it has been affirmed by the local government.

Reporter: you have been from 11 years to now, 5 years, what is the next development goal?

Yang Zaiwen: Xiangxi has rich tourism resources as the background. What I make is "Happy Valley Miao Drum King" golden tea, which can be displayed as a local brand in Xiangxi. I want to make a brand shop with my "Happy Valley Miao Drum King" golden tea. Because I strictly check the gate from the source, I believe in its quality, and I want to have my own chain store in every county and city around Xiangxi, that is, my own direct store. This kind of imitates the practice of a marketer in Taiwan. He said that his product can occupy the market in a certain place, and when a new way appears, it should be done in a new way. In this way, the high-quality tea "Happy Valley Miaogu King" will certainly be more popular. In addition, I was instructed by my boss to do e-commerce sales, which we will certainly do. I know very well in my heart that planting, R & D, production and processing of golden tea is actually a big industry, a big industry for our farmers to shake off poverty and become well-off.