Guizhou focuses on chile pepper bonanza

Like Wu, chile farmers from nearby Xiazi, Xinzhou and Yongle are frequent visitors to the trade center.

Called China's Chile Town, the center opened in 2017. With 13 chile drying lines and cold storage warehouses, it is one of the biggest chile trade centers in southwestern China. It sold 550,000 metric tons of the peppers last year, worth 9 billion yuan.

It not only deals in chiles produced in Guizhou, but also in those produced in other areas like Hunan and Henan provinces and Xinjiang. There were over 40 registered chile cooperatives in Xinpu last year, employing 2,800 households and producing 135,000 tons of peppers.

Apart from creating trade platforms, the local government also works with agronomists to improve the output, taste and quality of chiles.

Tian Hao, deputy director of Zunyi's Chile Research Institute, has been working on improving chile seeds for a decade.

"It is widely accepted that the quality of chiles grown in Zunyi is high. However, problems also exist, such as the poor purity of cultivars, low resistance and low yields after years of production," Tian said.