Heytea launches initiative to support female farmers

In an effort to offer more care for local female farmers, Heytea, a Chinese new-style tea giant, together with the China Foundation for Rural Development, launched a public welfare project in Southwest China's Yunnan province.

The first phase of the project kicked off in Yunnan's Jianshui and Pu'er. By introducing equipment, technologies, and training resources, the project aims to promote the standardization and modernization of the upstream bases of new-style tea supply chain, discovering a sustainable development path for the industry.

Meanwhile, the project focuses on the role that female farmers play and their practical needs, and designs and tailor-makes supply packages that can be used in their daily lives, offers manufacturing and technical training, and improves their working conditions and professional competence, to help them realize long-term development and lead a happier life.

Jianshui is the largest production area for the summer black grape in China, and an important origin for new-style tea brands to pick up fresh grapes. In 2010, the grape plantation area in Jianshui was only over 1,000 mu (66.67 hectares). By 2025, Nanzhuang county in Jianshui alone accounted for a plantation area of 68,800 mu.

Currently, the new-style tea industry has become a main demand-side for grapes in Jianshui, accounting for around 40 percent of the total output. Heytea has signed deals with 3,300 mu of the local orchard.

Pu'er has a long history of planting tea and an area of 2.21 million mu tea garden. According to representatives of local tea factories, with the development of Chinese new-style tea, there is increasing demand for tea, accounting for 80 percent of their total purchase volume.

Demand from new-style tea not only brought new growth points for the upstream of the supply chain, but challenges for female farmers. Especially for the cultivation of grapes and tea, there are busy farming periods with concentrated workload, often requiring long hours of outdoor and greenhouse work.

During the harvesting season, Yunnan has strong ultraviolet radiation, and the highest temperature in grape greenhouses in summer is close to 40 C. The harvesting season is concentrated, with longer daily working hours and corresponding increase in work intensity. In addition, many women also have responsibilities at home. During the tea picking season, or fruit thinning and picking season, many women travel back and forth between the fields and their families, further increasing their burden.

Apart from offering equipment, technologies, training and supply packages, on Oct 24, Heytea launched a public welfare event, turning the painting of a female grape farmer and her daughter in Jianshui into Heytea's stickers, product description cards, and refrigerator magnets, further raising public awareness.