Located at the foot of the main peak of Dabie Mountain, Jiuzihe Town, Luotian County, Hubei Province, the natural conditions are suitable for the growth of some Chinese medicinal materials. In the early winter of this year, the medicine farmers here were "busy and happy". As long as it doesn't rain, everyone digs up mature gastrodia and poria cocos in the ground during the day, and transports them to the fresh goods trading market of the Dabie Mountain Authentic Medicinal Material Industrial Park in the town before it gets dark.
The planting industry of Chinese medicinal materials such as gastrodia and poria cocos here has developed since the end of the 90s of the 20th century under the exploration of the villagers and the guidance of the local people, and has gradually become a scale. In recent years, the annual output of Poria cocos in Jiuzihe has reached one-fifth of the total output of the country, and the annual output of Gastrodia gastrodia accounts for one-sixth of the total output of the country. However, for a long time, although the yield and quality of Chinese medicinal materials grown by farmers here are good, the income is not high.
A glaring problem is the lack of a centralized trading market and the lack of bargaining power among farmers. In Luojiajia Village, Jiuzihe Town, Fang Yonggui, who has been planting Chinese medicinal materials for more than 20 years, recalled that in the past, when gastrodia and poria cocos were ripe, medicine farmers waited in the field for foreign traders to buy them, and if they couldn't sell them, they could only rot in the ground. Due to the lack of concentration and transparency in transactions, it is common for farmers to suffer losses in the face of price reduction and monopoly.
This year, Luotian County actively strives for the funds of the special lottery public welfare fund to support the rural revitalization project in the underdeveloped old revolutionary base areas, aiming to make up for the shortcomings of the whole industrial chain of Chinese herbal medicine seedling, planting, processing, circulation and brand promotion, and build the Dabie Mountain Authentic Medicinal Materials Industrial Park. The perishment market, which opened on October 15 this year, is one of the projects of the industrial park. The market opens at 9 a.m. every day, and at night it is the busiest time of the day. Since its opening, pharmacists from all over the country have been shuttling through the 3,800-square-meter trading area every day, and the sound of trading has come and gone, usually until the early hours of the morning.
The medicine farmers are looking forward to it. This means that the town's medicinal material trade has changed from decentralized to centralized, and the medicine farmers no longer need to 'run' to ask for prices and 'tug-of-war' bargains, but to decide to sell based on the quality of planting. Fang Yonggui said. On the opening day of the market, more than 2,000 local medicine farmers entered the market to sell, and more than 200 merchants from Shaanxi, Anhui, Yunnan and the province gathered here, and the turnover exceeded 25 million yuan on the day.
After the trading market was established, there were pharmacists who came to select goods every day. In the field, there is a trading area divided by village, and every evening, bags of freshly dug up gastrodia are transported to this point, and the medicine farmers are busy bagging, weighing, and checking the price. "This year's gastrodia is good, and the big ones above 4 taels can be sold for 16 yuan per catty. Every day or two, 31-year-old Luo Kang from Qiujiayuan Village, Jiuzihe Town, comes to the market.
In 2018, Luo Kang returned to his hometown from Shenzhen to start a business, planted more than 10 acres of gastrodia, nearly 5 acres of Poria cocos, and opened a small processing plant of Chinese herbal medicine in the past two yearsSecond, it is convenient to shop around, eliminating the need to go over the mountains and mountains in the past, and you can quickly and efficiently purchase suitable Chinese medicinal materials for processing."
Recently, the National Health Commission and other departments have included gastrodia in the list of substances that are traditionally both food and Chinese medicinal materials. This makes Luo Kang full of expectations for the development prospects: "medicine and food homology" will significantly increase the market demand for fresh hemp;At the same time, the completion of the town's fresh goods trading market is the first step in the hometown to vigorously improve the industrial chain of Chinese herbal medicines.
Zhang Weibing, deputy county magistrate of Luotian County, introduced that after the Dabie Mountain Authentic Medicinal Materials Industrial Park is fully completed, it can provide Luotian medicinal farmers with one-stop services such as authentic medicinal materials trading, production and processing, inspection and testing, skills training, financial services, cold storage leasing, display and sales, and medicinal and food experience, "which will enhance the competitiveness of the Chinese herbal medicine market in Luotian County and the bargaining power of authentic medicinal materials in the national medicinal materials market."
At present, Jiuzihe Town is following the development concept of "Chinese herbal medicine planting + origin processing + intensive processing + health care + tourism", relying on the Dabie Mountain Chinese Herbal Medicine Industrial Park, and driving rural revitalization through the integration of medicine and tourism. The broad prospect has also brought development confidence to the town's Chinese herbal medicine processing enterprises. Feng Zhengguang, general manager of Jiuzihe Zhengguang Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., introduced that the company's newly developed Poria cocos nutritional soup, wall-breaking Poria powder and other products have realized the transformation of Poria cocos from "selling by tons" to "selling by grams", and the gross profit margin has been greatly improved.
China Youth Daily, China Youth Network reporter Zhu Juanjuan, correspondent Chen Qin
*: China Youth Daily.