What changed
Dejiang County in Guizhou has added two standardized matcha-processing factories and 13 production lines through east-west cooperation projects. The factories received 20.3 million yuan in aid funding, while the production lines received another 28 million yuan. Local tea companies operate the factories, and finished matcha is sent to Guicha Group.
By 2025, Dejiang had 180,200 mu of tea gardens, including 166,900 mu in production. The county’s tea industry generated 1.674 billion yuan that year. Its matcha raw-material base covers 19,000 mu, with 2026 production forecast at 600 tonnes.
Why it matters
The central change is not simply more tea growing. It is the arrival of processing capacity close to the tea gardens.
Fresh leaves are perishable, and growers previously faced difficulty when weather disrupted collection or when local facilities could not handle the crop. The new factories process leaves through fixation, steaming and milling, allowing spring and autumn harvests to become matcha rather than remaining low-value raw material or going unused.
That shifts the weak point in Dejiang’s tea economy. The county already had large tea-growing areas; the projects target the gap between harvesting and selling a higher-value finished product. Local companies can put more money into raw materials, production and markets instead of building basic facilities, while nearby farmers gain a buyer and processing work closer to home.
The scale is meaningful, but the 600-tonne figure remains a forecast. The next test is whether the new lines maintain enough utilization to absorb more summer and autumn leaves, and whether the added processing capacity translates into durable gains for tea farmers rather than only larger industrial output.
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