Organic innovation helps Pu'er brew business success

The city is one of the acknowledged leaders in the field of tea cultivation.

In 2012, the southwestern province of Yunnan experienced a severe drought that caused Pu'er city's tea plantations to become infested by a type of moth that devoured the leaves and stems of the trees.

The pest was particularly rampant in Dong Zuxiang's 134-hectare plantation because he had refused to use pesticides on his land.

To avoid disaster, Dong mobilized more than 600 people, including local workers, family members and students on their summer holiday, to catch the insects by hand.

For every bug caught, they received payment of 5 fen, a now little-used subdivision of the yuan.

Within a month, the team had caught more than 6.4 million moths, costing Dong 320,000 yuan ($49,000).

Today, catching the moths by hand remains a routine measure every year, as the number of insects rises in March and September.

However, the refusal to use pesticides has raised the quality of the tea and helped Dong's company become a leader in Pu'er's organic tea industry. The city is famous for cultivation and production of the tea of the same name.

The Lancang, aka the Mekong, River runs through the city, and roughly 73 percent of Simao, the central district, is covered by forest, giving the region rich biodiversity and natural resources.

In November, a herd of wild elephants, whose migration to the far north has captured global attention, arrived in Pu'er and settled there for around five months before continuing their journey.

The local people believed that the good environment attracted the elephants, who made themselves comfortable in the region.

The organic tea industry is the city's calling card, while the zero-fertilizer, zero-pesticide approach used by local farmers has helped maintain the green environment and boost the economy.