20 years of restarting life

Chapter 3731 Qiao Family Mountain Tea Plantation

After visiting the school, it was still before 10 a.m., so Zhao Chang'an suggested going to see the town's tea plantation, which was not far upstream from Xihe Town.

Wu Yudong was a little surprised by this, but of course he nodded in agreement.

This tea plantation is a collective tea factory in Qiaojiashan Town, with more than 600 acres of high-quality tea gardens. It is located on several mountain peaks that are shrouded in clouds and mist all year round, not far from the upstream of the stream in the north of the town. It is also one of the largest tea-producing areas in Pengzhou in terms of both tea quality and concentrated area.

Along with Lingshan Tea Plantation and Xijiuhuashan Tea Plantation, it is ranked as one of the three major tea plantations in Pengzhou.

Twenty years ago, when land was distributed to individual households, these three tea factories were specially preserved as county collective industries. Later, the county delegated ownership to the townships, turning them into town tea farms.

According to Zhao Chang'an's previous life, the Qiaojiashan tea plantation was contracted by Xiang Juan's younger brother for 30,000 yuan a year, which is equivalent to 50 yuan per mu.

This price doesn't really involve rent-seeking or not. In recent years, the price of tea in the mountain city has been low, which has affected the price in Pengzhou, making it even lower. Many farmers' own tea gardens are in a semi-abandoned state.

Some tea gardens are given away to villagers for free to pick tea, but they are required to clear the shrubs, bamboo and weeds growing in the tea garden, and to prune the tea trees to prevent them from growing in a disorderly manner.

Although 30,000 yuan a year is not much, it can still play a role in ensuring the basic management and maintenance of the tea plantation. As a small treasury for the town, 30,000 yuan can still serve a purpose.

Only someone with status like Xiang Juan's brother could contract out this tea plantation. Otherwise, if it were just someone else, various inspections and extortion would be enough to make the contractor run away overnight without even paying the contract fee.

In his previous life, Zhao Chang'an drank tea at the Qiaojiashan Brick and Tile Factory, which was the factory's pre-Qingming tea. In terms of taste, shape, and color, Zhao Chang'an felt that it was no worse than the pre-Qingming tea from Taohua Lake.

Even years later, most of the Pengzhou tea from the Dabie Mountains, including Qiaojiashan, was still bought up by tea factories and merchants in the mountain city and sold as Shancheng Maojian, in addition to local consumption.

With China's economy booming over the next decade or so, there will be opportunities to make money everywhere. Many people from Pengzhou will go out to do snack business in other places. Although life is hard, they are also living a prosperous life.

Aside from some elderly people and village elders picking tea, the low price makes locals prefer to go out to work or do business rather than tie themselves to the tea garden.

The mountains and forests south of Pengzhou can be considered natural high-quality tea gardens. It is not a problem to reasonably develop hundreds of thousands of acres of tea gardens. Moreover, the tea industry can be extended to the two mountainous counties east of Pengzhou in the same model. Ultimately, it can be developed into a pillar industry with an annual output of 300,000 to 400,000 acres, producing more than 10 million catties of high-quality pre-Qingming tea, and a tea industry value of more than 1 billion yuan.

Even just considering Pengzhou's tea industry, the revenue would be no less than 400 million yuan, while Pengzhou's GDP last year was only 23.11 billion yuan.

That accounts for nearly 18%.

Although Pengzhou's tea industry has not undergone a unified statistical survey, more than half of the county's nearly 60,000 mu of tea gardens are either abandoned or used for self-consumption. The remaining 30,000 mu produce more than half of the output for internal consumption within the county. Of the remaining approximately 300,000 jin of dried tea, half flows to tea merchants in Shancheng City, and the other half is bought by small tea merchants from Pengzhou who do business in other places and sold as Shancheng Maojian tea elsewhere.

In other words, Pengzhou sells about 300,000 jin of dried tea every year, which can generate about 40 million yuan in output value, but no company sells it under the name of Pengzhou tea.

This awkward situation has also led to a situation where, while trying to revitalize the local economy, none of Pengzhou's leaders have explicitly proposed establishing Pengzhou's own industrial brands.

In Zhao Chang'an's view, since Duan Fengqing was unwilling to let the group integrate the high-quality tea gardens in Shancheng City, he would create a new tea industry base in the three counties of Pengzhou.

This tea brand can conveniently bypass the current issue of excessive pesticide residues in Shancheng Maojian tea, avoiding the need to pay for and fill the gaps left by past mistakes.

In Zhao Chang'an's previous life, Pei Pingjiang, who was re-elected, was unable to rebuild a positive image for the Shancheng Maojian brand until he was transferred.

When Pei Pingjiang was looking for a way to break the deadlock in Shancheng Maojian, he also chose the black tea industry. However, unlike Feng Jianfei, he did not bet on Chen Fanping. Instead, he had several leading tea merchants in Shancheng invest in and promote the project.

The end result was that the black tea project was successful, but the sales volume was almost negligible compared to the sales volume of traditional green tea. It could only be considered as enriching the sub-categories of the Shancheng Maojian brand.

The problem of excessive pesticide residues in tea has plagued Chongqing Maojian tea for over a decade, until it was deemed insignificant compared to the small amount of residue. In other words, the problem was never truly solved, but rather faded away due to the passage of time and the dilution effect of other agricultural product safety concerns.

However, although this brand is still well-known in China, it is only well-known and remains largely a regional tea brand, having lost the opportunity to truly become a top-tier tea brand in the country.

Once the convoy left the north of the town, it became a dirt road paved with pebbles along a stream. To the left were towering, steep mountain peaks, and to the right were cliffs with drops of more than ten meters. The scenery was beautiful, but the swaying and rocking of the car was quite frightening.

After swaying and rocking for two miles, we arrived at a valley surrounded by mountains.

Zhao Chang'an and the others got out of the car and saw a white waterfall flowing down between two mountains in a depression, gathering below to form a green pool of three or four hundred square meters. The water in the pool overflowed and formed a stream that flowed downstream.

Surrounded by mountains in this valley, there are dense forests and tea plantations with clear boundaries between them.

"It's so beautiful! This place could totally be developed into a tourist attraction!"

Looking at the beautiful scenery before him, Wang Yu couldn't help but exclaim in admiration, and began snapping photos with his digital camera.

“Professor Wang, scenery like this is actually plentiful in Pengzhou. It’s everywhere. The real attractions in Pengzhou are Lingshan and Xijiuhua Mountain. If you have time, please come over so we can show you some hospitality.”

Wu Yudong's face was full of enthusiasm.

"Let's go up and take a look."

Zhao Chang'an turned to Fan Chufei and Ye Yiyi and said, "You two don't need to go up."

"why?"

Consort Fan asked Zhao Chang'an, puzzled.

"The mountain is too steep."

"I'm wearing sneakers."

Seeing that Fan Chufei was unconvinced, Zhao Chang'an ignored her and said to Lin Xiaojie, "Teacher Lin, please stay and keep Ms. Ye company downstairs."

Ye Yiyi wore a bodycon skirt and high heels. This woman knew that Zhao Chang'an liked her dressed like this, so although she changed her clothes every day, she always wore a bodycon skirt.

This outfit is definitely not suitable for hiking. I can't just roll up my bodycon skirt to my waist like I did yesterday, revealing the tight leggings I'm wearing underneath.

Lin Xiaojie felt a chill as she looked at the almost vertical stone steps leading up the mountain. She was wearing a cheongsam that was even more form-fitting and figure-hugging than Ye Yiyi's, with only black suspender stockings and cotton underwear underneath.

If she climbed up there, those with restless eyes below would definitely be able to see what was going on inside.

Moreover, she was wearing high heels, which she wasn't used to wearing, let alone climbing such a steep mountain.

Hearing Zhao Chang'an say that, she couldn't help but look at him gratefully.

(End of this chapter)