In the tea garden, farmers were busy picking tea leaves up to standard. After the tea leaves go through strict inspection in the processing plant, they are then processed into high-quality Lilo black tea and green tea through traditional intangible cultural heritage techniques combined with fully automated production.

 

The large Lilo tea plantation spans Qingquan Town and Qiaotou Town of Guidong County, with 22,000 tea farmers involved for poverty alleviation. 

 

Lilo Tea Development Co., Ltd. has a unique development model with integrated development of primary, secondary, and tertiary industries, including tea picking, processing, selling finished tea and tea wine, and study tour.

 

 

 

Up to now, the company has been around for 17 years. In recent years, relying on the platform of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) Chenzhou Branch, it has entered the international market, gradually achieving its development in the local and overseas markets.

 

Guidong Lilo tea is a historical famous tea. Guidong County is located in the Luoxiao Mountains at the border of Hunan, Guangdong, and Jiangxi provinces, and is the county with the highest negative oxygen ion content recorded in Guinness. 

 

The unique natural growth environment plus strict tea-making standards make for the rare and excellent Lilo tea.

 

In September 2007, the company integrated advanced equipment, environmental protection technology, scale production capacity, tea production, processing, scientific research, and sales, and adopted a development model of “company plus cooperative plus base plus tea farmer plus research institute”.

 

So far, it has nearly 140,000 mu (about 9,333.33 hectares) of tea plantation, and has made good tea and liquor by excavating the internal and external value of tea trees.

 

Every summer, numerous tourists come to Guidong to escape the heat. The Lilo tea sightseeing park integrates ecology, sightseeing, amusement, experience, folk customs, and culture, and has become one of the must-visit tourist destinations. Lilo Tea Qiaotou Processing Factory has also become a Lilo tea study base and a labor education practice base.

 

 

 

Lilo tea is made according to the highest standards in the whole process, including the site selection, tea garden management, production and processing, packaging, and storage. It has passed SGS481 EU standard testing and ensured product quality from the source. It has been included in the “30 Most Beautiful Tea Gardens in China”.

 

In 2015, the company participated in the Hong Kong International Famous Tea Competition. Under the premise of blind tasting and evaluation, Lilo tea made an almost clean sweep of prizes, shocking the judges and participating tea companies present.

 

In order to enter a larger international market, the company has made efforts to improve the tea quality from sources such as air, soil, and water, introduced the world’s leading third-party testing agency SGS, and upgraded the brand image and philosophy to make it more suitable for the market.

 

In 2016, the company tea participated in the World Tea Expo in the United States to showcase a brand new image for the first time, which received unanimous praise from buyers. Subsequently, the Tiger Head image was put into use and has continued to this day.

 

“Participating in exhibitions and competitions plays a significant role in brand promotion,” said Huang Yuli, general manager of Lilo Tea Development Co., Ltd.

 

 

 

In recent years, Lilo tea has been present at various exhibitions such as the Hong Kong International Expo, the Milan Expo in Italy, the Kazakhstan Expo, and the Dubai Expo, and received high recognition and praise from overseas customers. “This year, we will also participate in relevant exhibitions in Hong Kong and Guangzhou, looking forward to new breakthroughs in foreign trade,” said Huang Yuli.

 

Several large jars of sealed liquor are placed in the middle of the entrance of Lilo Tea Chenzhou Exhibition and Sales Store. This is an innovative product launched by the company in the field of tea and liquor this year.

 

The longer the liquor is stored, the mellower it becomes. The company is making efforts to enhance the brand’s collection value by combining tea and liquor.

 

“In addition to large sealed jars, we have also prepared gift boxes with four small bottles,” said Zhang Guiying, the sales manager of the company, adding that 500 grams of tea liquor is brewed from 2 kilograms of black tea.

 

 

 

Recently, Li Xuefei, Party secretary of CCPIT Chenzhou Branch, and He Yanping, president, together with head of the company, discussed new paths and methods for the development of Chenzhou’s tea industry. 

 

They also suggested that the company, with export qualifications and complete customs procedures, consult professional institutions to obtain comprehensive foreign trade services and continue to participate in relevant domestic and foreign exhibitions, understand the market demand and consumption habits of the destination countries, and establish its own customer base and sales team.

 

Faced with opportunities and challenges, Huang Yuli is full of confidence in expanding the market.