Abstract: By making use of the survey data of Anhui tea growers and tea enterprises, this paper studies the cooperative relationship between the main bodies of agricultural industry clusters and its impact on the income of tea farmers and tea enterprises. The results indicate that there widely exists the cooperative relationship between the main bodies in the agricultural industry clusters, which would exert a significant impact on the income of the main bodies, namely tea farmers and tea enterprises. The exchanges of information and technical assistance between the farmers can have a significant positive impact on their tea income. The vertical cooperation between farmers and tea buyers, such as information exchange and technical services, will also increase tea farmers’ income. At the same time, the horizontal cooperation among tea enterprises and the vertical cooperation between the tea enterprises and the main bodies along the upstream and downstream in the industry chain can both increase the earnings of the tea enterprises. Therefore, we should promote the further development of tea enterprises, facilitate the cooperation between tea farmers and tea enterprises, raise the level of production technology and the income of tea farmers through the spillover of knowledge and technology from tea enterprises, establish the trust mechanism in agricultural industry clusters actively, and promote the in-depth cooperation in agricultural industry clusters. The government should formulate corresponding measures to develop the cooperative relationship between the participants in the clusters, according to the different stages of agricultural industry clusters.

Key words: agricultural industry clusters; cooperative relationship; income of tea farmers