CHONGQING, April 8 (Xinhua) -- As a county cradled by steep mountains and limited by poor transportation, Chengkou in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality had its revival in its fortune after finding a niche in cured meat.
Zhao Xiaochun, 81, was a cured-meat industry pioneer because he has been promoting local products to the outside world for four decades.
"Finding that many outsiders love the taste of our homemade cured meat, I traveled for three days, carrying 2.5 tonnes of cured meat to the market in Chongqing's Wanzhou District in the 1980s. Delightedly, I made a fortune of 60,000 yuan (about 8,700 U.S. dollars)," Zhao recalled.
Zhao got his big start from the bonus and established his own company in 1988, processing and selling cured meat with fellow villagers in Chengkou.
"Unlike elsewhere, Chengkou locals would simmer the meat with gentle heat to dry it out, and the procedure would last for more than a month. That's how our products acquire the unique taste," Zhao explained.
Zhao's business highlighted its presence across China and forayed into overseas markets, such as the United States and Singapore.
"We have maintained our annual production of around 500 tonnes of cured meat. During this year's Spring Festival, all our goods sold out," Zhao said, adding that thanks to China's optimized COVID-19 response, the company exported 500 kg of cured meat to the United States last year.
Eyeing the massive business potential, Wang Haiming, a former distributor of Chengkou cured meat, became the producer in 2019. This year, more than 200 different varieties of cured-meat products will roll out, meeting diverse customer demands, said Wang.
Last year alone, the county's cured meat industry yielded a total output value of 800 million yuan.
The downstream industrial chain, the pig breeding sector, is also having its moment in the county. Zhao spent approximately 30 million yuan buying over 10,000 pigs from townships and villages administered by Chengkou, benefiting more than 1,100 local households.
"There were around 130,000 full-grown pigs ready to be sold in Chengkou last year. Every local household raises their own pigs," said Fu Xingji, deputy director of the local agriculture commission.
"We opened a liquor factory and swine production base in 1997. We feed the pigs on the wine lees," said He Yixiang, a 49-year-old villager in Houping Township, Chengkou County. "We've joined the cured meat production in recent years. A small-scale supply chain has formed in our own business."
She added that supporting policies targeting the cured meat and pig breeding industries launched by the local government have also injected great confidence into the industry. As experience grows, He is glad to have seen the sales of cured meat this Spring Festival multiply.
"It's a heavy lift from our end to scrape by on the barren land of Chengkou, little-known even for some local Chongqing residents. But we made it through," said Zhao. "And the industry is not only about the wealth of some of us, but common prosperity for all." ■
