Maguan Tea

Maguan Tea

　　Tea thrives in subtropical and tropical regions. Maguan County spans a range of climate types including northern tropical, southern subtropical, central subtropical, and northern subtropical, making it suitable for tea cultivation. In 1981, the Tea Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the Yunnan Tea Research Institute conducted a survey of tea plant resources in Yunnan. They discovered numerous ancient tea trees in areas such as Laojun Mountain and Gulinqing, which were identified as a new variety of tea plant and officially named “Maguan Tea.” Currently, the county has a total tea plantation area of 16,000 mu, mainly distributed across Nala Township, Bajie Town, Mianchang Township, Renhe Town, and other areas. To accelerate the development of the tea industry, the county now has a total of nine primary tea processing factories with an annual processing capacity of 400 tons.

In recent years, Maguan County has leveraged its natural resource advantages and introduced preferential policies to attract nine major tea growers. These leading growers have helped develop tea cultivation among more than 600 households, involving over 2,500 people, covering a total of 16,200 mu. The county has guided tea growers to increase investment in technology, spending over 800,000 yuan to upgrade more than 2,000 mu of old tea plantations. High-yield and high-quality tea varieties such as “Yunkang-10,” “Fuyun No. 6,” and “Yungui” have been introduced, bringing the area of high-quality tea plantations to 5,000 mu. Agricultural science departments have strengthened technical training and provided guidance to tea farmers on improving plantation management and cultivation techniques. New models of tea production have been explored, establishing two tea associations that follow the “company + farmer + base” model—where tea processing companies provide funding, and farmers contribute land and labor for planting and managing the tea, thus expanding the scale of cultivation. Tea processing enterprises are encouraged and supported to build their own brands, resulting in successful brands such as “Pangu King,” thereby enhancing product competitiveness and gradually increasing market share. To date, 15,000 mu of tea plantations in the county have become productive, yielding 200,000 kilograms of tea annually, generating nearly 7 million yuan in output value. Tea farmers have earned over 5 million yuan in income, with an average income of more than 8,000 yuan per farming household.