Fine feathers help to spread prosperity

Experienced workers

Since Shucheng county has formed an intact industry chain for such businesses, it has been easy to find experienced workers locally, Sun said.

For example, Chen Tongwei, 36, had been working for another local plant until three years ago, before observing the machinery and other workers in the Huayu plant, which has about 150 workers.

Chen, a Hongdang villager, is responsible for quality control. Her husband works in a city far from home, and she stays in the village to take care of her son, a middle-school student. With a monthly wage of nearly 4,000 yuan, Chen said she is satisfied with her work and family arrangement.

Cao Youjun, 71, a villager in Ganchahe, earns even more by raising 1,200 Wanxi white geese.

In early February, he purchased the goslings for the eighth year of his business.

The breeders get subsidies from the local government to cover part of their costs, such as buying goslings, according to local officials.

Cao said the geese were the first group for this year and will be ready for sale in about three months. After that, Cao will raise 800 more.

He started by raising just dozens of geese eight years ago, and then he believed he had enough experience to expand.

"You don't worry about the selling, there are just so many buyers," said Cao, adding that the goose species is favored not only by feather processing companies but also restaurants and food processing companies.

"In a single year, I can earn more than 60,000 yuan from the breeding," said Cao.

The locally produced feathers are preferred by down garment companies as well as sporting goods makers.

Government statistics show that Lu'an's export value of feather and down products reached 810 million yuan last year.

A city government plan in 2019 said the city's white goose breeding scale will reach more than 20 million annually by 2025, with the comprehensive total output value reaching more than 10 billion yuan.

Yang Xiuling contributed to this story.