Anhui operates first China-Europe tea train

A freight train, carrying more than 800 tonnes of tea leaves, left Hefei, capital of east China’s Anhui province, on August 27, and is expected to arrive in Tashkent, capital of Uzbekistan, in mid-September.

This was the province’s first China-Europe train dedicated to tea. The tea leaves, worth more than US$1.18 million, were produced in Huangshan, a prefecture-level city known for the Huangshan Mountain.

As a major tea-growing area in the province and also in the country, Huangshan made up over 30 percent of the provincial tea output and 14 percent of the national total.

However, due to the lack of stable external channels, the city’s foreign trade has been restricted.

The train service has opened up a new logistics channel for tea export of Huangshan, and will speed up the city’s integration into the Belt and Road Initiative.