BEIJING - Southwest China's Guizhou province will substantially increase acreage for tea growing between now and 2015 as it hopes to create a massive industry in ten years' time, an agricultural official of the province said Tuesday.

Hu Jicheng, vice director of the agricultural committee of the province, said that Guizhou now already ranks second in China in terms of tea-growing acreage, which now stands at 4.3 million mu (around 287,000 hectares).

The province seeks to expand the acreage to 7 million mu by 2015, which will pave the way to creating an industry worth 100 billion yuan ($15.9 billion) in ten years' time, he said at a promotional event in Beijing.

Tea is a widely popular drink in China and its history spans thousands of years. Hu said that green tea is Guizhou's major production.

At present, the province's tea farmers number around four million, and the number of tea processing companies has reached 683, Hu said.