Farmers pick tea leaves at a tea plantation in Shiyang town, Taishun county, Wenzhou, Zhejiang province. [Photo/66wz.com]
The growing popularity of spring tea produced in Taishun county in East China's Wenzhou has spurred the local tea-making industry to embrace new technologies, local media outlets reported.
"It used to take more than a dozen people 24 hours to fry 400 kilograms of dried tea over two shifts. Now, with the new automated tea-frying machine, only two people are needed to operate it. The machine can stir-fry up to 2,500 kg of dried tea in 24 hours," said Lin Hui, an experienced tea manager.
Lin added that the tea produced by the machines have the ideal combination of color, aroma and taste.
The move to use automated equipment was in response to the provincial government's call for the agriculture industry to leverage new technologies to bolster development.
Statistics show that tea plantations in Taishun had grown 2,000 mu (133.3 hectares) in 2021 to 88,000 mu. Ninety-eight percent of tea processing, tea tree trimming, and tea leave picking in the county are now performed by machines. The mechanization rates of tea plant protection and tea products transportation currently stand at 75 and 74 percent respectively.
According to Lin, tea plantations are eligible for subsidies when purchasing new tea-frying machines.
