The spring tea harvest season is in full swing in southwest China's Yunnan Province with farmers busy plucking the tea sprouts and expecting better sales.

Harvests are underway in over 12,000 hectares of tea plantations in Guangnan County, Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture of Yunnan.

As this year's fresh spring tea leaves are expected to bring higher income, tea farmers are busy picking tea leaves while enjoying the spring vitality and unique views in the Anhua Tea Plantation in the county.

"The spring tea leaves have been sold at a higher price than last year. The price of high-quality tea leaves is 16 yuan (about 2.5 U.S. dollars) per kilogram, and leaves of lower quality sell at about 12 yuan (about 1.8 U.S. dollars) per kilogram. By picking tea leaves, we can make 100 to 200 yuan (about 15 to 30 U.S. dollars) each day," said Lu Zhaojin, a local tea farmer.

As local temperature continued to rise, the harvest season started earlier than previous years. The first batch of spring tea leaves has already gone on the market.

"We started picking tea leaves two weeks ago on March 1. We have purchased nearly 5,000 kilograms of fresh tea leaves and processed over 1,000 kilograms of dry tea leaves," said Lu Xingheng, manager of Anhua Tea Plantation.

Guangnan County has achieved major breakthroughs in the scale, quality and efficiency of the local tea industry in recent years by integrating resources, expanding tea growing bases, supporting industry leaders and building up brand recognition.

At present, the county has over 25,000 hectares of tea plantations, with an estimated output of 740 tons of spring tea leaves and sales revenue of 42.5 million yuan (about 6.5 million U.S. dollars).