Livestreaming becomes a major sales channel for Songyang's tea industry. [Photo/WeChat account: ls-mnews]

More than 100 tea livestreamers are busy promoting and selling tea products at the Southern Zhejiang Tea Market in Songyang county – administered by Lishui city in East China's Zhejiang province – as the spring tea season arrives.

It's one of the biggest green tea trading markets in China, attracting tea merchants and farmers from across the country at this time of the year.

In recent years, Songyang county has embraced the "internet+" trend and powered up its ecological economy by using digital technology – enabling the sales of Songyang Xiangcha Tea, a local specialty, to surge.

In 2020, the sudden outbreak of COVID-19 caused a glut of tea in Songyang. In the crisis, some tea merchants discovered new consumption scenarios and began to use social e-commerce platforms to do business online.

In that year, Songyang's online retail sales of agricultural products led by tea soared by 787 percent year-on-year, ranking it first in Zhejiang province and achieving a counter-trend growth pattern.

In March 2022, Songyang cooperated with Taobao and Douyin, two major e-commerce platforms, to hold an online marketing event for Songyang Xiangcha Tea. Subsequently, daily sales of Songyang tea hit more than 11 million yuan ($1.6 million).

To date, the county has developed more than 1,500 online tea shops and more than 400 livestreaming e-commerce businesses. In 2022, online retail sales of tea reached 4.25 billion yuan, an increase of 63.91 percent year-on-year.