In early summer, the author interviewed Zhongyuan Pepper City in tanghe county, Henan Province, one of the top ten agricultural products wholesale markets in China, and found that with the end of pepper transplanting, 260,000 mu of high-quality peppers in this county were almost sold out, and the sales fields were all over the country except Tibet, Qinghai, Hainan and Taiwan Province, making it the most influential pepper price in the country. With the deepening of the investigation, the author gradually solved the mystery of its rise in the national pepper market in just two years-

The national price is 4.8 yuan, and Tanghe is 5.2 yuan.

Although it is in the off-season, the endless stream of car buyers is still spectacular. In the context of the continuous decline of the small pepper market, such transactions are very rare.

A strange price phenomenon has attracted the attention of the author. Zhu Shuming, president of the Pepper Association of Yuantan Town, where Pepper City is located, said: "Now the price of pepper has entered the lowest period. The national average price is 4.8 yuan/Jin, and here we are 5.2 yuan/Jin, which is 0.4 yuan higher than the average price. In such a low sales season, it is normal that the price is too low. "

Is the price of pepper in Tanghe really higher than the national average and affects the prices of local markets? The buyer from Guilin, Guangxi, briefly confirmed: "I have traveled all over the country, and the price of Tanghe is a bit high, but we still chose here because the pepper here has the best quality, short distance and low freight, which is very cost-effective."

The super competition of Tanghe pepper is not entirely based on geographical advantages, but on the charm of the industry.

Change the variety and add a few hundred dollars.

Farmers in Tanghe have always had a tradition of planting peppers. However, due to the serious continuous cropping for a long time, the varieties deteriorated and the quality and benefits were discounted. Therefore, the county started the "grafting" project of improved varieties.

1997, relying on China Academy of Agricultural Sciences, they introduced the world-famous Japanese Tochigi "Three Sakura Pepper" for trial planting, which was successfully popularized in a large area, with an average income of 2,000 yuan per mu. However, with the change of market and demand direction, various characteristic peppers have appeared one after another, showing great development prospects. The county began to adjust the crop layout and implement diversified planting.

The county established a 500-mu pepper introduction experimental center in Yuantan town, and bred seven new varieties, such as "new generation" and "bullet", which are suitable for local soil conditions and climate characteristics and have great potential for income increase.

Yuan Zeng, a farmer in Dangpo Village, is particularly happy about this: "I plant 4 acres of' new generation' peppers a year. In the past, I could earn 2,000 yuan per acre, and now I can earn 2,500 to 3,000 yuan."

From the variety change to the popularization of pollution-free technology, Tanghe pepper industry has been named as "quality-oriented"

Standardized procedures Chili peppers have gone up in price

Walking in the pepper planting base, you can see the permanent sign of standardized production procedures of peppers standing in the fields. Pepper farmers follow the "plan" and standardize their operations, and production activities are in full swing.

In Yuantan town, just ask a pepper farmer, and you can clearly tell which fertilizers can't be used, which pesticides can't be used, and what problems need to be dealt with. The widely acclaimed pepper field is full of green ideas.

In tanghe county, every production base has contractor cadres, and every pepper field has full-time technicians. Within the pepper industry, the popularization rate of pollution-free technology reached 100%, and it was awarded the national pollution-free pepper production base by the Ministry of Agriculture.

Standardized production of the best pepper with uniform size, thin skin, bright color, pure spicy taste and saturated pigment quickly established the market within two years, and thus a "premium" higher than the national price level appeared.

Build a trade city and turn the market into a depression.

An important support for the emergence of "Tanghe price" is the rise of Central Plains Chili City.

In order to jump out of the strange circle that there is no market for production and cheap peppers hurt farmers, Tanghe and Baode Real Estate Development Company of Quanzhou City, Fujian Province jointly invested in the construction of Zhongyuan Pepper City.

The construction of pepper city has become the largest channel for local pepper industry to enter the market, forming a benign industrial interaction pattern of "the city is famous for its pepper quality and the pepper expands with the city".

Pepper City soon became a market depression in the Central Plains, attracting hundreds of miles of high-quality peppers from nearby to flood into the market, and quickly won the national championship, driving the nearby super production base of nearly10.5 million mu, with a daily trading volume of 300,000 kg across the country.

Now, the county has cooperated with Moic Investment Group and Handing Industry and Trade Group to build large-scale deep processing projects such as pepper food and pigment extraction, hoping to become the largest pepper processing base in China on the basis of forming a national pepper price center.