A four-day Global Tea Culture Festival and Tea Expo came to an end in Meitan county, Zunyi city of Guizhou province on May 8, with more than 2,000 visitors having attended and more than 5.2 billion yuan ($0.82 billion) in deals agreed.

The opening ceremony of Global Tea Culture Festival and Tea Expo is held in Meitan county, Zunyi city of Guizhou province on May 6. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Rich tea culture and ecological competitiveness make Guizhou tea a kind of quality product. In recent years, the province has been striving to improve the scale, quality and value of its tea industry. Data shows that the tea planting area in Guizhou reached seven million mu (46.67 hectares) last year, the highest across China. The total output of tea and its output value reached 327,000 tons and 36.1 billion yuan respectively.

At the event's opening ceremony, the provincial standards, which came into effect in November last year, were revised for four famous types of local tea leaves, including green tea and black tea, according to the Guizhou Provincial Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision.

During the event, the China Tea Marketing Association gave a speech on the competitiveness of the tea industry in Guizhou and called Zunyi the most competitive region for tea exports in China. Meanwhile, the China International Tea Culture Institute named Meitan County China's tea industry museum.

The Guizhou tea expo has been held annually by the provincial government since 2009. This year's event hosted some featured activities including a contract signing ceremony for tea merchants, communication meetings for tea entrepreneurs from China, Japan and South Korea and launches of new products of Lipton, a tea brand of the consumer goods company Unilever.

Farmers pick tea leaves at a tea garden in Meitan county, Zunyi city of Guizhou province. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Zhao Yandi contributed to the story.