Local tea industry hit by quake in Ya'an, China
After causing a humanitarian crisis, the recent earthquake in southwest China's Sichuan Province is threatening to undermine local tea production. As rescue teams continue to search for survivors, experts warn that the 7.0-magnitude earthquake may have a lasting impact on the local tea industry, which remains one of the pillars of the local economy. The city of Ya'an is one of the birthplaces of Chinese tea with a rich history dating back over 2,000 years. It remains an important tea-growing region to this day, having produced about 66,000 metric tons of tea last year. Ya'an was located just a few miles from the earthquake's epicenter and there are reports that a number of tea processing factories and workshops have been impacted. The city already suffered massive losses during an earthquake 5 years ago, when 6667 hectares of tea farms were damaged.