Hechi has seen the rapid development of its tea-oil industry in recent years, with the annual new plantation area of tea-oil trees reaching more than 180,000 mu (12,000 hectares) on average over the past four years, ranking top in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region for three of those years consecutively, Guangxi Daily reported on Jan 30.

At present, the overall plantation area of tea-oil trees in Hechi amounts to 1.69 million mu, ranking second in the region.

Hechi has made tea-oil industry into an important sector by releasing financing loans to support local agricultural development.

Technical service teams have been set up to offer guidance for people on how to plant tea-oil trees scientifically and on how to manage and protect these trees.

The city has finished the renovation of 330,700 mu of tea-oil tree plantation areas with low yields. It is estimated that the overall yield of Hechi's camellia seed will reach 72,500 metric tons in 2020, with an overall industrial output of 1.38 billion yuan ($213.58 million).

Currently, Hechi has three municipal-level demonstration zones for high-yield and high-efficiency tea-oil trees, covering an area of over 10,000 mu. It also has 63 county-level demonstration zones for high-yield and high-efficiency tea-oil trees with an area of over 1,000 mu; 124 township-level demonstration zones for high-yield and high-efficiency tea-oil trees with an area of over 100 mu; as well as 588 village-level demonstration zones for high-yield and high-efficiency tea-oil trees with an area of over 20 mu.

With the help of these demonstration zones, a total of 550,900 people from 163,500 households have participated in the tea-oil tree industry and the city lifted 156,400 people in 36,500 households out of poverty in 2019.

Efforts have been made by the city to support the tea-oil processing industry. Leading companies working in deep tea-oil processing with an annual processing capacity of more than 1,000 tons and an overall investment of more than 50 million yuan can get a subsidy of 30 percent of their overall investment.