In recent years, while striving to expand the tea industry, Qingquan Town has also tapped the business opportunities of “bamboo leaves”. The local government has actively guided the masses to expand the planting area of bamboo leaves in the sparse woodland by streams and mountains, as well as on the land vacated after demolition of old and dilapidated houses.

 

Up to now, there are 5,500 mu (about 366.67 hectares) of bamboo leaves in Qingquan Town, with a total annual output of 2.5 million kilograms and an increase in per capita income of more than 1,500 yuan, hence, the bamboo leaves industry has become another pillar industry in Qingquan Town.

 

“There is a good natural environment and plenty of sunshine. The bamboo leaves are large, plump, and especially resilient. They even have natural fragrance of glutinous rice,” said an official of Qingquan Town, adding that the price of bamboo leaves ranges from 8 to 16 yuan per kilograms depending on their quality, of which 42-45 cm long, 13 cm wide and 0.01 cm thick fresh bamboo leaves are the best, and the price can reach 16 yuan a kilogram.

 

 

“Today my wife and I worked all the afternoon, picked more than 50 kilograms of bamboo leaves, and sold them for more than 500 yuan,” said Zhong Cunqing, a villager of Dadi Village in Qingquan Town, who was counting the money happily.

 

The local government of Qingquan Town appointed cadres and staff to collect opinions of the masses door to door, recorded every detail about the industrial development, and created a “1+2” work model, i.e. a town cadre and a village cadre to regularly contact and serve large planters to continuously expand the bamboo leaves industry.

 

At the same time, the town government holds symposiums for able native villagers working outside and business conferences for large planters at major festivals such as the Spring Festival and Tomb-Sweeping Day to seek development opportunities and encourage the entrepreneurs native to the town to return to invest and start businesses. It also coordinates resources, makes full use of policies to provide convenience, and increases the coordinated efforts to speed up infrastructure construction such as water, electricity, gas and roads, in a bid to reduce investment costs, improve service quality, and optimize the business environment.

 

“As a native, I’m proud to do something for my hometown with my modest efforts!” Qingquan’s business environment and the status quo of the bamboo leaves industry is visible. When Zeng Maolin from Zhongkeng Village, who started his own business in Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province, learned about this business opportunity, he invested more than 10 million yuan to establish Qingquan’s first bamboo leaves intensive processing enterprise – Guidong Qingyouyuan Agricultural Development Co., Ltd. at the beginning of this year under the guidance and support of the village, with a planting area of 10,000 square meters, cold storage area of 6,000 cubic meters, 10 sets of equipment, and an annual deep processing capacity of 2,500-ton fresh leaves.

 

Zeng Maolin said that the company is in operation now and buys about 5 tons of fresh leaves every day. The company’s operation can stabilize the market price of bamboo leaves, drive the industry development, and provide more than 100 jobs for local villagers.  

 

“This is your money for selling bamboo leaves, a total of 225 yuan from 22.5 kilograms of yours, 10 yuan a kilogram. The next time you pick the leaves and send them here, we will collect as many as you have,” said the staff of Qingyouyuan Zongye Company.

 

 

In order to bring more benefits to bamboo leaf growers, the government of Qingquan Town organizes cadres, workers, professional and technical personnel to go deep into enterprises, markets and growers to guide safe production, broaden sales channels, stabilize sales prices to protect the rights and interests of growers, promote the integrity of enterprise management, and resolve the worries of planters.

 

“Under the guidance and help of the town government, 280 villagers in our village have planted bamboo leaves. There is now an area of 1,500 mu (100 hectares) and an annual output value of about 700,000 kilograms, which can bring more than 30,000 yuan of economic income to the village collective every year,” said Zhang Qianyong, Party secretary and director of Zhongkeng Village. Villagers are very enthusiastic about planting tea and bamboo leaves, and people’s lives are getting better and better with a considerable annual income.