From May 15 to May 16, the 4th session of Tea Festival of Three Gorges was held in Yiling District successfully. Yichang Xiaoshi Tea Co., Ltd signed sales contracts with Indian Reliance Industries Limited and Qiu Ke Harry International Limited. Dengcun Green Tea Group Co., Ltd also signed sales contracts with America Rocky Mountain Tea & Coffee Company and Shaowu Min Qian Tea Trading Company. It was reported that orders of 4342.8 tons of tea was signed, worth of 530 million yuan.

　　In the trade fair, Edward Xie, Executive Director of U.S. Tea Association and Chairman of the America Rocky Mountain Tea & Coffee Company, pointed out that the Yiling District boasts of mist, abundant rainfall and excellent ecological environment, which is known as the “Hometown of Chinese Famous Tea”. The Yiling District is located at N 31°. With an elevation of 800 meters, it is the most suitable latitude for the growth of tea trees in the world. The Three Gorges tea also has a unique growing environment. The natural geographical advantages give birth to the well-known enterprises such as Dengcun Green Tea Group Co., Ltd. America Rocky Mountain Tea & Coffee Company and Dengcun Green Tea Group Co., Ltd had established long-term cooperative relationship. They will strive for reaching 200 million yuan of total tea exports this year.

　　According to Liu Hongfu, Secretary of Yiling District Committee, the festival, with the theme of“Industry, Ecology, Culture, Trade, Exchange and Blend”, was co-hosted by Dengcun Green Tea Association and the Three Gorges International Tourism Tea City， co-organized by the Dengcun Green Tea Group Co.,Ltd, Yichang Xiaoshi Tea Co., Ltd, Long Xia Tea Industry Group and Xiushui Tianxiang Tea Company etc. To attract broad masses of the people, the tea festival activities were held in the “First Origin Tea Market in Hubei”, the Three Gorges International Tourism Tea City and “the Most Beautiful Hometown of Chinese Tea” Dengcun. Those activities aimed to highlight tea culture exchange, tea products exhibition and tea trade integration, to make the festival return to folk and benefit farmers.

　　During the festival, foreign guests and businessmen came to Dengcun Town and Taiping Town. They visited the Wangjiaya Technology Park and production lines in Xiaoshi Group, Wangjiaya Ecological Tea Garden, the production lines of Hualibao Dengcun Green Tea Group, Taipingxi Tea Breeding Base of Xiaoshi Group, Taipingxi tea seed oil production lines of Xiaoshi Group, Longxia tea Expo Garden of Longxia Group and Industrial Park of Xiaoshi Group. This visit helped them learn about the development of the tea industry and tea cultural heritage in Yiling District.

　　In the Tea Production and Processing Base located in Dengcun Wangjiaya, tea production related activities were held. Merchants from 11 countries, including the United States, India, South Korea, Bangladesh, Nepal, Congo participated in them. They walked into the tea shops, visited the tea leaves cleaning production process in Xiaoshi Group, participated in picking tea leaves, tea ceremony, tea percussion, fried tea shows and other events to feel the original ecological, natural customs and charm.

　　During the activities, 226 tea merchants from the United States, India and other 11 countries and 15 provinces, as well as Ali Baba, Jingdong and other electricity providers took part in various activities that aimed to build up the sales platform of “Promoting the sales of tea by the festival, meeting friends with tea”. The local enterprises signed sales contracts with 87 businessmen from home and abroad for 49,783 tons of tea, worth of 2.6 billion yuan, of which 47,279 tons green tea, 1,944 tons black tea, 234 tons tea drinks, 61 tons tea food and 265 tons of other tea.

　　(Correspondents: Zhang Guorong, Xiang Qinghua, Feng Tao)