Spices are the soul of food, a delicacy on the tip of the tongue, and an important carrier for promoting cultural inheritance and development. Yulin, Guangxi has been the main planting and distribution center of spices in Southeast Asia since ancient times, and it still distributes 80% of the country's spices today. Promoting the quality and extension of the unique Yulin spice industry, polishing the brand, and seeking greater development with the help of RCEP is a new direction that the local area is working towards.
Yulin City in Guangxi is the production and distribution center of spice raw materials in China. It is known as "If you don't have medicine, you have to go to Yulin; if you want to find fragrance, you have to go to Yuzhou". As a market that was spontaneously formed by small vendors, the Yulin spice market has gone through many twists and turns over the past few decades and is now growing into a national spice pricing and trading center. However, the Yulin spice industry is both "big" and "small". Big means that 80% of the domestic spices are distributed here, with an annual transaction volume of about 30 billion yuan. Small means that it accounts for a small proportion of the total volume of about 10 trillion yuan in related industries such as food, medicine, and daily necessities.
Walking into the newly built Guangxi Yulin International Spice Trading Market is like walking into the world of spices - out of the more than 200 commonly used spices, this market has more than 150. Every day, spices from all over the country and even the world are shipped from here to all parts of the country.
“If you want to sell Sichuan peppercorns nationwide, you have to come to Yulin.” In a shop in Yulin International Spice Market, Duan Changkai, a businessman from Sichuan, told reporters why he came to Yulin to distribute spices.
The formation of the incense "chain" needs to be solved
How did Yulin's spice industry develop? In the science museum on the office building of Yulin International Spice Trading Market, the reporter was able to explore its origins.
Since ancient times, Yulin has been the main planting and distribution center for spices in China and Southeast Asia. In addition, due to its superior geographical location, Yulin has gradually attracted the attention of spice dealers. "The early spice market was formed spontaneously. At that time, buyers went to the countryside with sacks to buy spices, and then set up stalls in places with convenient transportation. The market was small and scattered." Yan Shuzhan, who has been working in the spice industry for more than 20 years, recalled.
The early spice business was mainly carried out by locals in Yulin. It was not until the 1980s that a group of businessmen engaged in importing spices from Southeast Asia in Maoming, Guangdong came to Yulin, significantly increasing the volume of local spice trade. In 1988, Yulin raised 8 million yuan to build the first batch of approved traditional Chinese medicinal materials (spice) professional markets in Guangxi that were opened in the country. The local spice trade gradually spread across the country and the products were sold overseas. In 2009, Yulin took advantage of the China (Yulin) Traditional Chinese Medicine Expo to become a national spice raw material distribution center and spice pricing center. However, until 2020, Yulin's spice industry relied on the development of the Chinese medicinal materials market and there was no professional market.
In July 2020, the Yulin International Spice Trading Market and Fuda Agricultural Products Cold Chain Logistics Park project with a total investment of 4 billion yuan started construction, opening up the creation of a complete spice industry chain with complete functions such as spice trading, product research and development, deep processing, warehousing and logistics, testing and inspection, international exhibitions, and import and export bonded warehouses. However, due to the weak foundation of Yulin's spice industry, there are shortcomings such as weak primary industry, lack of secondary industry, and weak tertiary industry, and it is difficult for spices to become a fragrance "chain".