GUIYANG, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- The 5th Guizhou Zunyi International Chili Expo is going to be held in Zunyi, Southwest China's Guizhou Province, from August 18 to August 19.
The expo will witness the launch of the national-level pepper market in Zunyi and the construction on Guizhou pod pepper industrial cluster, marking that Guizhou has taken a solid step forward in building a whole pepper industry chain in China.
Eating hot peppers dates back to more than 400 years ago in Guizhou. Nowadays, Chilies and related deep-processing products has formed a distinctive industry in Guizhou.
As of July, Guizhou's chili planting area increased 6.4 percent year on year to 5.45 million mu or 363,333 hectares, with an estimated yield of 7 million tonnes and a turnover of 72 billion yuan.
Data showed that Guizhou's chili export value amounted to 110 million yuan in the first half of this year, ranking first in the country.
In recent years, Guizhou's pepper industry saw robust growth as the local government has stepped up efforts to promote the development of characteristic agricultural industries and quickened the pace to push forward the rural industrial revolution.
At present, the province has more than 300 chili enterprises, 490 demonstration bases and 1.5 million mu or 100,000 hectares of standardized acreage.
It is learned that the pepper industry has played an increasingly significant role in poverty alleviation in the province, as nine cities and prefectures, 48 counties and more than 2.85 million farmers are participating in Guizhou's chili industry, creating about 17,000 new jobs.
Zunyi, the major chili planting region in Guizhou, saw the annual planting area of pepper reach over 2 million mu or 133,333 hectares, accounting for 3 percent, 8 percent and 40 percent of the world, the country and the province, respectively.
(Edited by Yang Yifan with Xinhua Silk Road, yangyifan@xinhua.org)
A single purchase
