Hunan's oil-tea camellia industry has made a historic breakthrough, with the comprehensive output value reaching 101 billion CNY in 2025, exceeding the 100-billion-CNY threshold for the first time. 

Currently, there are 23.5 million mu (nearly 1.57 million hectares) of oil-tea camellia planting areas across the province, achieving an annual output of 470,000 tonnes of camellia oil. Both indicators rank first nationwide, providing solid support for national grain and oil security.

Hunan boasts advantages in oil-tea camellia production. In recent years, Hunan has enhanced the high-quality development of the industry through resource cultivation, brand building, technological innovation, and industrial integration. 

As for the industrial layout, Hunan has established seven oil-tea camellia industrial clusters in such regions as Hengyang and Yongzhou. Among these regions, Hengyang, Zhuzhou, Yonghzou, Shaoyang, and Huaihua has been shortlisted for the oil-tea camellia industry development demonstration projects subsidized by the central government. 

In terms of brand building, the provincial-level public brand "Hunan Camellia Oil" has continued to expand its influence. Sixteen Hunan businesses entered the list of China's top 100 enterprises in oil-tea camellia industry.   

The industrial structure has kept improving, realizing effective transformation from "selling raw materials" to a whole industrial chain. Leveraging such platforms as the National Engineering Research Center for Oil-tea Camellia, Hunan has developed a number of high value-added derivative products in the fields of daily use chemicals, cosmetics, health and fitness, and pharmaceuticals. The conventional industrial pattern which simply relied on selling tea-oil camellia fruits and crude camellia oil has been changed fundamentally. The industrial chain has continuously extended into upstream and downstream sectors.

Industrial integrated development has helped increase farmers' income. A number of oil-tea camellia themed 4A-class tourist attractions have been established across the province, with oil-tea camellia plantations integrated with rural tourism and cultural creativity, forming a diversified development model of "planting + processing + cultural tourism". To date, the oil-tea camellia industry has helped 1.11 million farming households increase their income. It has become a characteristic pillar industry that steadily boosts earnings for the farmers in the mountainous areas.

This article is from the Hunan Provincial Government www.enghunan.gov.cn.

Translator: Pang Yuehui

Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn