Taiwan enterprises sow opportunity in Fujian

Eastern China's Fujian Province has very similar geographical and weather conditions to Taiwan. That's a major reason why enterprises on the island have chosen the region as their top destination for modern agriculture investment. They are not only using the fertile land as their farming base, but also using their investments as a bridge to the massive mainland market. Our reporter Pan Deng visited the biggest tea company in China to find out how it developed a comprehensive industrial chain.

The world's only tea college attracts students from all around China.

19-year-old Yang Yong'an comes from Taiwan's Taichung City. He has been studying here for one year. As a tea merchant's son, he studied marketing at college to prepare to one day take over his family business.

Yang wants to know every detail about tea。

Yang said, "My father's friends recommended this college to me. Although the location is a long way from big cities, I think it is fun to live here. I can learn lots of things about tea and get to know the mainland students. I think young people on both sides of the Straits need to know more about each other."

This unique tea college was established by the Tenfu Group from Taiwan. During the past decade, the enterprise has shifted nearly all its business to the mainland.

The college aims to educate the future leaders in the tea industry. And the group aims to be the number one tea maker and dealer in China -- a goal which has already been realized.

But they also have their sights on even greater success. The group has transformed abandoned mountains into tea farms -- where hundreds of varieties of tea from all around China -- are grown. Fujian's weather makes their quest for the best tasting tea a lot easier.

Shen Fujing, director of President's office of Tenfu Group, said, "Now we have 9 factories here and over 900 shops around China. We are planning to list our company on the stock market in the next two years. We have high expectations for the newly-announced national strategy to boost the economy (on the west coast) of the Straits. This will help our expansion a lot."

Besides the leading Tenfu Group, there are 30 enterprises from Taiwan that have settled in this agricultural zone, which was exclusively established for businesses from Taiwan.

Hong Lu, Zhangpu Agricultural Zone, said, "Since the central government's policies are in place, we are planning to better improve the zone's infrastructure and market our brand. Meanwhile, we will enhance exchanges on farming technologies with Taiwan businesses."

The farming area is not only trying to boost production, but also expand into agricultural products and logistics.