Huang Zhiwang, a resident of Fangcun village in Changshan county, Quzhou, Zhejiang province, developed a career involving oil-tea camellia.

Huang started planting oil-tea camellia in 2010 and established an oil-tea camellia family farm in 2012.

By the end of 2020, 2,000 mu (133 hectares) of oil-tea camellia planted by Huang experienced a bumper harvest. To produce high-quality camellia oil, Huang decided to adopt traditional oil pressing technology.

A view of Huang Zhiwang's ancient oil pressing workshop in Fangcun village, Changshan county, Quzhou, Zhejiang province. [Photo/qz123.com]

The traditional oil pressing technology has to go through several procedures, such as picking tea seeds, drying seeds, frying seeds, grinding, steaming powder, loading and pressing, and each procedure has to be done manually.

In 2021, Huang's ancient oil pressing workshop produced 55,000 kilograms of camellia oil with an output value of more than 6.9 million yuan ($1 million), and helped scattered camellia oil growers process more than 20,000 kg of camellia oil.

In addition, Huang employed local villagers to work at his oil pressing workshop. During the peak production season, more than 140 villagers were hired, and their total income reached about 800,000 yuan a year.