A close-up of oil-tea fruit. [Photo/tianmunews.com]

Oil-tea fruits in Changshan county, Quzhou recently entered harvest season.

Oil-tea, also known as camellia oil, is extracted from the seeds of oil-tea trees, which are widely grown in mountainous areas of Quzhou.

Oil-tea trees in Changshan county are currently grown over an area of about 280,000 mu (18,666 hectares), and the output of oil-tea seeds exceeds 6,000 metric tons annually.

This year, the output of oil-tea seeds is expected to exceed 8,000 tons. The total planting area and output both rank first in Zhejiang province.

Thanks to favorable weather and advanced pest and disease prevention and control techniques, the oil-tea trees have experienced a bumper harvest.

Wang Shihua, owner of the Shihua Family Farm in Changshan county, said that this year his farm is expected to harvest 150,000 kilograms of oil-tea fruits and produce more than 10,000 kg of oil.

The Baimianshan Oil-tea Plantation, which covers an area of more than 1,500 mu and has more than 10 varieties of oil-tea, is also enjoying a fruitful year. Huang Zhiwang, the person in charge of the plantation, said that this year the plantation is expected to harvest 500,000 kg of oil-tea fruits, and the fruiting rate and oil extraction rate of the fruit increased by 20 percent and 10 percent, respectively, compared with last year.