Yesterday, the Fourth National Exchange Conference convened in Huzhou on Seedling Breeding Technologies for Fruit and Tea Cash Crops. The event brought together chief scientist representatives from seven national industrial technology systems (citrus, apple, grape, pear, peach, litchi/longan, and tea), along with expert  representatives for seedling breeding positions. Participants engaged in deep discussions centered on the theme of technological innovation in seedling breeding and industrial development.

Wang Liyuan, a researcher of the Tea Seedling Propagation and Production Technology position at the Tea Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (TRI CAAS), stated that the conference specifically aimed to learn from Huzhou's benchmark practices in the tea industry. It was reported that Huzhou boasts a tea plantation area of 466,700 mu (approximately 31,113 hectares), with an annual output of 7,400.45 metric tons and an output value of CNY6.69 billion. Both the per-mu output value and the total output value of tea in Huzhou have ranked first in Zhejiang Province for 11 consecutive years. During field inspections, expert teams commended Huzhou's integration of scenic functions within tea plantations, transforming white tea from a mere commodity into a multi-functional platform for visual appeal, cultural experience, and lifestyle immersion. This approach has facilitated the deep integration of primary, secondary, and tertiary industries. Dr. Wang disclosed that TRI CAAS will collaborate with research teams from Zhejiang Province and Huzhou City to jointly develop new white tea varieties.

The Huzhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences stated that in recent years, significant progress has been made in the development of Huzhou's citrus, grape, pear, peach, and tea industries through the introduction of scientific research capacity. Leveraging national expertise gained from this conference, Huzhou will further optimize its local fruit and tea industry chains to better boost farmers' income.