Ya'an tea industry hit by quake

The tea industry, one of the pillars of the local economy in Ya'an city in Southwest China's Sichuan province that was hit by a 7-magnitude earthquake on Saturday, was seriously affected by the disaster, farmers and companies said.

Ya'an produced about 66,000 metric tons of tea last year. But as farmers were preparing this year's new spring tea, the city was hit by the quake.

"On top of losses from a drought a few months ago, we expect much less production this year," said a local official quoted by Chinese media.

The local tea industry association said it is still in the process of assessing losses caused by the earthquake, but it has received reports that a number of tea processing factories and workshops have been damaged.

Five years ago, the city lost more than 4 million yuan ($625,000) from the massive Wenchuan quake in the province. Workshops in more than 100 tea factories collapsed and more than 6667 hectares of tea farms were damaged during that earthquake.