Peppers a hot commodity in Hunan

As a province famous for spicy food, a person from Hunan consumes about 50 kilograms of peppers every year, with the total yearly demand reaching millions of metric tons, according to local government figures.

The province is home to more than 1,000 pepper processing enterprises, with five of them achieving annual sales revenue of more than 1 billion yuan ($138 million).

Among the different types of peppers, the Zhangshugang pepper has won the nickname "Hermes pepper "for being rare and expensive, like the French luxury handbag brand.

Zhangshugang is a township in Xiangyin county, Hunan province. The unique weather and soil conditions make the namesake peppers crispy, tender and strong.

The Hermes pepper was listed as a national geological trademarked pepper in 2013. As it takes a long time to grow and has a low yield, it commands a high price. When it first enters the market between April and May each year, its price can reach as high as 600 yuan per kg. The high price, about 100 times that of an ordinary pepper plant, earned it the Hermes pepper nickname.

To capitalize on the high demand and price, two agricultural companies were established in the township in 2015 to help scale production of the pepper.

Zeng Liyu, president of Hunan Yangquehu Agricultural Development Co, said provincial government authorities have offered the company help to conduct standardized and scaled seedling cultivation, and the seedlings are provided to local farmers.

The company has worked closely with local farmers. Farmers grow the peppers, and the company buys them at the highest market price. Growers can net a profit of nearly 750,000 yuan per hectare, he said.

The township grew 786 hectares of peppers last year, with total output reaching 14,200 tons and total revenue reaching around 510 million yuan.

In 2022, about 163 grams of Zhangshugang pepper seeds were carried into space by the Shenzhou XIV spaceship. Under experimental cultivation, the seeds have shown high yield potential and strong disease resistance, and contain many vitamins.

The province's success in growing peppers could not have been achieved without researchers.

Since the 1980s, Zou Xuexiao, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and his team have conducted countless field research and laboratory experiments and successfully cultivated more than 160 pepper breeds. They have also established the largest pepper seeding base in Asia.

Zou has worked with Changshabased Hunan Xiangyan Seed Industry Co to produce a large number of pepper breeds that have been sold to more than 30 countries and regions in the world.

Miao Wu, vice-general manager of the company, said they conducted 6,000 to 7,000 molecular groupings to select the pepper breeds with the highest quality.

Elsewhere, in Rwanda, growing spicy peppers from Hunan has become an important way for local farmers to earn extra money.

The climate in Rwanda is suitable for the growth of peppers, which can be planted two to three times each year, Miao said.

"Peppers grown in the country are very spicy and have good quality and high yield," he said.