Ankang’s Selenium-Rich Matcha Promotes Tea Industry Upgrade with Cultural Event

On May 3, the Shanshengxin Tea Culture and Art Space in Xing’an Park, Ankang City, Shaanxi Province, was filled with the lingering fragrance of tea and a profound ancient charm. A tea-making party themed “Selenium Attraction” gathered more than 20 tea lovers, and behind this cultural event lies a systematic upgrade of Ankang’s selenium-rich tea industry — transforming from traditional green tea to selenium-rich ground matcha, and from a single product form to a full industrial chain layout.

Ankang boasts natural selenium-rich soil and is the largest natural selenium-rich area in China. People’s Network reported that in recent years, Ankang City has designated the selenium-rich industry as its leading industry, with the tea industry serving as an important pillar. Faced with a saturated traditional green tea market, serious product homogenization and limited room for value-added improvement, developing the selenium-rich ground matcha industry has become a key breakthrough to extend, supplement and strengthen the industrial chain of Ankang’s tea and selenium-rich food industries.

Hosted by Ankang Municipal Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the “Selenium Attraction” tea-making party is not only a vivid inheritance of Song Dynasty tea-making culture, but also a market test and cultural promotion for Ankang’s selenium-rich ground matcha products. As 2026 marks the first year of the 15th Five-Year Plan and a crucial year for Ankang to promote the integrated development of agriculture, culture, tourism, sports and health care, the cultivation of the selenium-rich ground matcha industry is a precise practice of this strategy in the tea industry, connecting cultural experience, health consumption and industrial upgrading.

The development of Ankang’s ground matcha industry from scratch is supported by government leadership, scientific research and inter-county coordination. China Agricultural News reported that Ankang Academy of Agricultural Sciences has carried out cooperative research with universities such as China Agricultural University to provide technical support for the quality of selenium-rich ground matcha. Two automated production lines have been built and put into operation in Chang’an Town, Pingli County, and Ankang’s first matcha operation center has been established, launching four categories of products initially.

The products include classic selenium-rich matcha powder, compound food series, matcha drinks and health products, as well as selenium-containing daily chemical products, marking the initial establishment of a complete industrial chain covering scientific research, planting, processing, production and marketing. The tea-making competition at the event included two rounds, using Ankang’s selenium-rich tea soup and Pingli selenium-rich matcha powder respectively, reviving the elegant style of “tea fighting” in the Tang and Song Dynasties and demonstrating the quality of local matcha.

Unlike traditional green tea which is mainly brewed, ground matcha can be eaten whole, extending its application scenarios to food, health products and daily chemicals. Xinhua News Agency reported that this innovation solves the problem of limited selenium dissolution in traditional tea brewing, allowing fuller selenium intake and meeting contemporary consumers’ demand for functional foods. With the global matcha market in short supply, Ankang plans to build 30 production lines, striving to achieve an annual output of 3,000 tons of ground matcha, on a par with Japan’s annual output.

Currently, Ankang’s selenium-rich ground matcha industry is in its initial stage of development, with a complete industrial chain taking shape. Looking ahead, Ankang will continue to rely on its natural selenium-rich resources and scientific and technological support, expand the matcha market, and promote the in-depth integration of the tea industry with culture and tourism. It will strive to build a selenium-rich matcha industrial cluster, accelerate the transformation from an agricultural city to an industrial strong city, and let Ankang’s selenium-rich matcha gain recognition at home and abroad.