Guiyang Oil Tea

Guiyang Oil Tea

　　Guiyang Oil Tea is a specialty of Guiyang County, Chenzhou City, Hunan Province. Guiyang County has the geographical conditions and mountain forest resources suitable for oil tea cultivation, with high-quality oil tea tree varieties and superior tea oil.

　　The production of oil tea in Guiyang County has a long history. According to records, tea trees have been cultivated in Guiyang since the Wanli era of the Ming Dynasty. The "Guangzhou Annals of Guiyang Directly-administered Prefecture" and the "Treatise on Trade" from the Tongzhi era of the Qing Dynasty state: “From the northeastern valleys of Lanshan, tens of thousands in profits are generated annually from tea oil,” and “Within Lucun, beside Baishuidong, tung and tea trees yield thousands in oil profits.”

　　In recent years, Guiyang County has implemented a series of measures to vigorously encourage the development and planting of oil tea, with the county finance allocating two million yuan annually to support the growth of the oil tea industry. The county has actively explored a development model of “enterprise + farmer households + base,” establishing two main production areas in the eastern Dongcheng region and the northern Liantang region. These two main areas radiate to surrounding towns and villages, forming a construction pattern of “main production areas + radiation zones.” At the same time, relying on oil tea forest bases, the county has rationally arranged oil tea processing enterprises, forming an oil tea industrial cluster within the county’s industrial park. It has also established the Guiyang Oil Tea Association, achieving scaled, industrialized, and premium development of the oil tea industry, thereby better promoting its growth. Currently, the county has 10 oil tea enterprises, with a total planted area of over 30,000 mu of oil tea forests, covering six townships.