Tea leaves become new driving force for increasing people’s incomes in Golog, Qinghai
One of the main areas producing Tibetan Snow Tea is Banma County in Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, which has a cold climate and sparse population. However, Tibetan Snow Tea has developed into an industry here and is being sold throughout the country. How did a local industry from the plateau make success?
Chen Yanjun is the head of Qinghai Province Golog Prefecture Banma Tibetan Snow Tea Industry, which he started to engage in in 2015. This year, Banma County decided to develop the Tibetan Snow Tea industry to help drive people out of poverty and live a better life.
However, the road to industrialization is not easy. The climate in the plateau area is harsh and the road conditions are bad, making it extremely difficult to develop industries here. Outside of Banma County, almost no one has heard of Tibetan Snow Tea. In order to increase the popularity of Tibetan Snow Tea, Chen Yanjun and his team visited almost every supermarket and hotel in Golog Prefecture to promote it.
In 2018, the annual sales of Banma Tibetan Snow Tea reached 1.3 million yuan. They distributed more than 1,000 yuan to each of the 503 impoverished households in the county. In 2018, with the help from relevant departments of the Banma County Government, they established an e-commerce platform called “Three-Color Banma”, and Chen Yanjun was able to sell Banma Tibetan Snow Tea to more places.
In 2019, Chen Yanjun’s team also tried a webcast. In just five minutes, 5,000 bags of Tibetan Snow Tea were sold, earning sales of 450,000 yuan.
Today, the Tibetan Snow Tea planting area in Banma County exceeds 1,200 hectares, creating an output value of nearly 18 million yuan and benefitting nearly 10,000 farmers. Small tea leaves have become a new driving force for the people on the plateau to increase their incomes.