Guizhou sees boom in plantations for featured forestry industries

From January to May of this year, Southwest China's Guizhou province built 1.53 million mu (102,153.33 hectares) of plantations for bamboo, tea-oil trees, Sichuan peppers, and Chinese honeylocust fruits, which were listed as "featured forestry industries" in 2020.

Since last year, Guizhou has established a full industrial chain involving planting, processing, marketing, and technological innovation. In 2020, it built 1.98 million mu of plantations for featured forestry industries, achieving 16 billion yuan ($2.5 billion) in output value and helping 530,000 people increase their incomes.

In 2021, Guizhou expanded the planting area for bamboo by 169,100 mu, bringing the total planting area to 4.92 million mu, ranking ninth in China. Guizhou is home to four counties each with more than 500,000 mu of bamboo plantations, while Chishui county is one of three Chinese cities and counties with more than 1 million mu of bamboo plantations.

Guizhou's total plantation for tea-oil trees reached 3.32 million mu in 2021, ranking fifth in China. Guizhou has 10 counties each with more than 100,000 mu of tea-oil tree plantations, and has built tea-oil tree industry core areas covering Liping, Tianzhu, Yuping, Songtao, Ceheng, and Wangmo counties.

The total plantation area for Sichuan peppers was 1.65 million mu in 2021, with Wuchuan, Daozhen, Xishui, Dejiang, Zhenfeng and Guanling counties as the main Sichuan pepper production areas.

Guizhou's total plantation area for Chinese honeylocust fruits ranked first in China in 2021, with a total area of 893,000 mu. Guizhou's Zhijin county is now China's largest Chinese honeylocust fruit production base with an annual output value of 400 million yuan.

According to the plan, Guizhou plans to complete the construction of 8.13 million mu of plantations for featured forestry industries during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25), including 3.1 million mu of newly-constructed bases and 5.03 million mu of renovated area.

Guizhou also plans to generate more than 40 billion yuan in annual output for featured forestry industries and cultivate at least 65 related enterprises.