1. Green is the most potential and competitive base color for the development of Yunnan:
Yunnan, located on the only route of Ancient South Silk Road, possesses a unique geographical advantage of embracing “three Asian regions” (East Asia, South Asia and West Asia) and shouldering two oceans (the Pacific and the Indian Oceans). It is the main province involved in the “Belt and Road” initiative and a frontier window of China toward South Asia and Southeast Asia. In January, 2015, Chinese President Xi Jinping inspected Yunnan and pointed out that the advantage of Yunnan lay in its location and the outlet for Yunnan was to open up. Yunnan was expected to strive to become a demonstration area of promoting national unity and progress in China, a pioneer in the construction of ecological civilization and a powerhouse toward South Asian and Southeast Asian areas, which brought Yunnan a historic opportunity for making a leapfrog development in the new era.
The advantaged natural environment and diversified of Yunnan have Formed abundant resources and humanistic cultures. Its multiplex geographical conditions and extensive ethnic cultures have prepared a good foundation for the green development of Yunnan.
At the beginning of this year, after an in-depth analysis, Yunnan Provincial Communist Party Committee and Provincial Government proposed the plan of creating the three brands of “green energy”, “green food” and “destination for healthy life”, by bringing Yunnan’s advantages into full play, enhancing strong points and avoiding weaknesses, displaying the characteristics, and aiming for a world-class ranking. The “three brands” strategy is a major initiative for cultivating new drivers for the growth of Yunnan. Inevitably, “green” will become a striking business brand for the industrial transformation and upgrade and the high-quality economic development of Yunnan.
The “three brands” cover the primary industry, the secondary industry and the tertiary industry, the feature is green development and high-quality development. The route is constructing “the traditional industry+the mainstay industry+ the emerging industry”efficiently. The goal is developing and extending new energy and building the modern economic system.
2. Making the green food become the “gold signboard “ of plateau characteristic products.:
The brand of “green food” is mainly built on the firm foundation for the development of Yunnan’s modern agriculture with plateau characteristics, and by accelerating the promotion of high-quality development of agriculture.
Yunnan has abundant resources and almost all types of land climate. The superior ecological environment provides Yunnan with numerous high-quality agricultural products, and creates advantages of production places which are hard to replicate. Yunnan produces various kinds of plateau, tropical and subtropical food. The development of green food started in the 1990s. With the development of green food industry, the growth of gross scale and exportation of Yunnan’s agricultural products is greatly improved. This year, Yunnan will intensify the development of markets for Yunnan products from 8 industries, including tea, flowers, fruits, vegetables, walnuts, coffee, Chinese medical herbs, and beef; and will work with the world to develop more products.
Yunnan Tea: Yunnan is an origin of tea. Tea has been planted and used here for more than 1700 years. It is an ancient tea area in China, with a huge variety of tea. Yunnan tea mainly includes green tea, black tea, Pu’er tea, and compressed tea etc. Currently, the acreage of tea planted in Yunnan is over 350,000 hectares, which makes up more than 19% of the total acreage in China, ranking the first in the country. The volume of tea production in Yunnan is over 180,000 tons, ranking the second in China.
Yunnan Flowers: Being an ocean of flowers, Yunnan is one of the three best flower cultivation areas in the world, besides Kenya in Africa and Colombia and Ecuador in South America. Yunnan, in a leading position in the flower industry of China and among Asian flower markets, is a “wind indicator for market” and a “barometer for prices” of fresh cut flowers in China and even in Asia. As of now, Yunnan has cultivated 560 new varieties of flowers; owns over 100 innovative technologies and patents, with the quantity and types of new varieties ranking the first in China.
Yunnan Fruits: Fruits produced in Yunnan are luscious, in numerous varieties. Fruits such as apples from Zhaotong, pomegranates from Mengzi, grapes from Yuanmou, snow peaches from Lijiang, sweet persimmons from Baoshan, Baozhu pears from Chenggong, oranges from Huaning, and nectarines from Kaiyuan etc. have been recognized as a regional public brand of well-known and high-quality fruits in China, or a brand with Chinese National Protected Geographic Label. Considering the superior geographical conditions of the province, fruit tycoons from countries such as Israel, the United States, the United Kingdom and Chile etc. have settled down in Yunnan and joined the cultivation and development of fruit varieties, and become part of the industrial supply chain.
Yunnan Vegetables: Vegetables and fruits produced in Yunnan are fresh. Every season, vegetables of all seasons are produced, and sold on the market. In winter, vegetables that usually grow in the open air in summer in other areas, such as tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, cucumbers and kidney beans etc., can be produced in the warm areas in south Yunnan or in dry and hot valley areas such as Yuanmou etc. In summer, vegetables that usually grow in winter in other areas, such as Chinese cabbages, cauliflowers, green vegetables, turnips and garlic etc., can be produced in the high-altitude cold mountain areas at the north part of Central Yunnan. At present, Yunnan vegetables are sold to 36 big and medium-sized cities in China, and exported to over 40 countries and regions, with a sales volume up to 11.2 million tons, including an export volume of 905,000 tons, which makes 1.22 billion dollars of foreign exchange, accounting for almost one fifth of the export volume of Yunnan’s agricultural products. Of the vegetables imported by Thailand, 85% are Yunnan vegetables; and of the vegetables imported by Hong Kong, 45% are from Yunnan.
Yunnan Coffee: Yunnan is the “hometown of coffee in China”, with the main producing areas located in Dehong, Pu’er and Baoshan etc. According to historical records, Nongxian Village in Dehong Prefecture introduced and started to grow Arabica coffee in 1914. Coffee has been planted in Yunnan for more than one hundred years. The Ruili Coffee Germplasm Resource Garden established by the Ministry of Agriculture in Dehong Prefecture is the largest coffee seed bank in China, and also one of the first 9 tropical crop germplasm resource gardens approved by the Ministry of Agriculture. The varieties of coffee most planted in Yunnan include Typica, Bourbon and Catimor. Taking the plantation of arabica coffee in Dehong Prefecture as an example, a national record of 363.5 kilograms of coffee beans per unit was once created. In the season of 2016-2017, the acreage of coffee plantation in Dehong Prefecture reached 270,000 mu. The yield of fresh coffee beans reached 250,000 tons.
Yunnan Medicine: Yunnan is a treasure land of Chinese medical herbs. Over 2000 species of Chinese medical herbs grow in the province, among which some are unique in Yunnan. Ethnic medicine is one of the Yunnan characteristics. Each ethnic group has its own medical herbs of various species, creating a vast field that is worth being developed. Up to 1250 commonly used medicinal herbs can be found in Yunnan, as well as over 400 herbs used for traditional Chinese medicine formulas or as ingredients in manufacturing Chinese patent medicine. Among them, some high-quality herbs are renowned traditional Chinese medical herbs, such as panax notoginseng, gastrodia elata, aplotaxis auriculata, coptis teeta, Yunnan poria cocos, and cordyceps sinensis etc.
In addition, Yunnan has developed characteristic products such as nuts from Lincang, walnuts from Yangbi, plateau yaks, and black goats from Lijiang etc. These products are of first-class quality, enjoying a good reputation both at home and abroad. They have become the most outstanding achievement in Yunnan’s continuous promotion of the “brand of green food”.
1) To build three industrial matrices of green food:
According to the press conference held in 2018 on the theme of “sticking to high-quality development and striving to build the ‘three brands’”, Yunnan will make efforts to build the first industrial matrix of “vegetables + flowers + live pigs”, to accelerate the promotion of the second industrial matrix of “vegetables + Chinese medical herbs + walnuts + cows and sheep”, and to focus on cultivating the third industrial matrix of “fruits + coffee + edible mushrooms”.
Yunnan has significant advantages in its green food industry. In the past 5 years, 21 agricultural products from Yunnan were recognized as well-known trademarks in China, and over 2000 agricultural products were certified as products of “three types and one label” (organic, green and pollution-free agricultural products with geographical label for agricultural products). In 2018, Yunnan is striving to have over 600 other products certified as products of “three types and one label”, and to have the production acreage of certified organic and green agricultural products improved by 10% and 15% respectively. In the future, Yunnan will make great efforts to promote the application of an information platform that traces the quality and safety of agricultural products. Currently, a full coverage of traced subjects has been first realized in the counties of agricultural products with quality and safety at national and provincial levels. Meanwhile, the whole industry chain risk monitoring has been applied to specific agricultural products and industries. By 2020, the risk monitoring will be applied to all the key agricultural products of Yunnan.
It is clearly proposed in the 2018 Government Work Report of Yunnan that great efforts will be made to develop domestic and foreign markets, and to expand the influence and market share of Yunnan agricultural products. The report emphasizes on making great efforts to promote the development pattern of “big industries + new subjects + new platforms” and the whole industry chain development of “scientific research + planting and cultivating + processing + circulating”. In order to put the content of the report into practice, Yunnan is working hard to build an industrial chain and a value chain for green food, to stick to the production standards for green food, and to accelerate the formation of brand cluster effect. Presently, the advantageous area of agricultural products of Pu’er tea with Chinese characteristics in Lincang, Yunnan; the advantageous area of agricultural products of Yuanmou vegetables with Chinese characteristics in Yuanmou County; and the advantageous area of agricultural products of Dehong arabica coffee with Chinese characteristics in Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture have been selected respectively as one of the 62 advantageous areas of agricultural products with Chinese characteristics.
“We should protect the ecological environment like we protect our eyes. We should be determined to protect the green hills and clear waters, and the blue sky and white clouds of Yunnan.” The words of Chinese President Xi Jinping given when he inspected Yunnan in January, 2015 are still ringing in our ears. In order to keep the green hills and clear waters in view, to keep nostalgia in mind, and to provide more green food for people, Yunnan is taking the development of modern agriculture with plateau characteristics at a high starting point as the strategic focus for the optimization and upgrade of traditional industries in the years to come, trying to promote high-quality development with industrialization concept; to highlight greening, premiumization, specialization and branding; to take the road of promoting agriculture with quality and green products; to strengthen the quality foundation of products while promoting green production; to make great efforts in developing ecological recycling agriculture; to improve the processing level of green products; and to realize the integration and value increment of the tertiary industry. Yunnan is concentrating on building a “gold signboard ” for high-quality and reputed agriculture with Yunnan characteristics.
2) To build representative regional brands:
High-quality “Yunnan style” agricultural products whose origin can be traced back are regarded as “healthy food”. However, the multiplex climate types, good natural environment and good reputation on markets are only part of the foundation for industrial development. While the demand for health is met, “Yunnan products” can create higher value and representative regional brands can be built only by striving to blend in market demands, and by closely following the consumption upgrade and current changes of green life style.
In recent years, the high quality of green food from Yunnan has been recommended more and received good reputation. Last year, a Yunnan promotion event on the theme of “An Open China: Amazing Yunnan, Sharing Its Best with the World” was held at Blue Hall in the south tower of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In his speech, Foreign Minister Wang Yi introduced Yunnan coffee and Pu’er tea to the world. From August 25 to September 3, 2016, Luxi County has supplied 72.44 tons of fresh vegetables in 13 vehicle trips for the G20 Summit in Hangzhou, serving as a “vegetable basket” of the summit.
“Green” is the advantage of agricultural products from Yunnan. In 2017, Yunnan established a new national demonstration area for quality and safety of exported food and agricultural products in Mengzi and a new provincial demonstration area for quality and safety of exported food and agricultural products in Luxi. Up to now, Yunnan has established 10 demonstration areas for quality and safety of exported food and agricultural products. The production safety, production technology and management level of agricultural products have been improved. Products such as canola oil and gingers from Luoping received protection as ecological original products. Currently, chain stores selling “Yunnan products” have been set up in cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Macao etc. and become windows for consumers in different places to learn about Yunnan characteristic products.
“Green” is also the best selling point of Yunnan products on domestic and oversea markets. In 2017, agricultural products from Yunnan recorded a sales revenue at 171.3 billion yuan and a profit at 13.9 yuan. The market competitiveness of green agricultural products has been improved continuously. The online retail sales of agricultural products from Yunnan alone had reached up to 9.896 billion yuan, with a year-on-year growth of 54.54%, which was much higher than the national average level, ranking the third in terms of growth rates in China. On the international market, agricultural products from Yunnan made 4.19 billion dollars through export, ranking the first in terms of export sales in west China in several consecutive years. The numbers of countries and regions that Yunnan products were exported to had already exceeded 100. These data fully reveal the huge potential of Yunnan’s development of the green food industry.
In future, under the goal of building the brand of Yunnan, Yunnan will adopt a food safety system into the assessment system; promote branding; learn about the functions of trademarks and make reasonable use of them; and will help enterprises make their products accepted by consumers. Meanwhile, Yunnan will cultivate more large backbone leading green food circulation enterprises that integrate production, supply and sales, build the electronic business platform of the green food, and improve the system of logistics transportation, so as to drive the green food industry into a fast, healthy and stable development road. In addition, Yunnan will integrate brand information and resources of more products, keep a foothold in domestic and oversea markets, and actually build a “brand of Yunnan green food” that is accepted by markets and trusted by consumers.
3. To build green energy into the largest pillar industry of Yunnan:
To build the “brand of green energy” means to transfer the advantage of the clean hydroelectric resources in Yunnan into an advantage for economic development, and to work hard to build Yunnan into a powerful province in green energy.
By the end of 2017, the installed electricity capacity of Yunnan Province was 85,500,000kw (including 60,760,000kw of hydropower; 8,190,000kw of wind power; and 2,330,000kw of photovoltaic power), ranking the sixth in China. The installed capacity of green energy accounted for 83%, and the generating capacity of green power made up 92%. In 2017, Yunnan’s energy industry had seen an added value of 86.37 billion yuan, which ranked second only after the tobacco industry, with a year-on-year growth of 26%. Yunnan is becoming the second largest province that is capable of sending clean energy to other provinces and areas in China. The share of Yunnan’s clean energy trade and the share of non-fossil energy in the total consumption of primary energy both rank the first in China.
Relying on its advantage of green energy, Yunnan will make great efforts to develop new energy automobiles, aiming to realize an annual production of one million vehicles after years of hard work. At the same time, an integrative development of hydro aluminium and hydro silicon will be promoted significantly. Yunnan will also strengthen the construction of power supply points, accelerate the construction of power grids, perfect the gas infrastructure; speed up the cultivation of provincial market, expand oversea market, enhance international energy cooperation; deepen the reform of electric power management system and the reform of oil and gas management system; focus on building a regional platform for international electricity trade, a power dispatching platform in southwest China, and a platform for big data on energy; and continuously extend the industrial chain of Yunnan’s green energy. According to the development plan, by 2020, the green energy industry of Yunnan is planned to achieve an added value of over 140 billion yuan, and become the largest pillar industry of Yunnan Province.
4. To build Yunnan into a dreamland for people to enjoy healthy life:
To build the “brand of destination for healthy life” means to give full play of Yunnan’s advantages in rich biological resources and good ecological environment, and to focus on building a dreamland for people to enjoy healthy life.
Yunnan is well known for its unique plateau scenery, its tropical and subtropical scenery and products in frontier areas, and its colorful ethnic cultures, which has been attracting more and more visitors. Currently, the concept of massive health accords with the concept of this era and the demand of people. This is a God-given historic opportunity for Yunnan to build a “destination for healthy life”.
On the one hand, Yunnan is developing a full-chain “massive health industry” while focusing on the construction of a medical industry complex that integrates medical treatment, research and development, education, and health recuperation. On the other hand, by focusing on the program of “travel in Yunnan with one mobile phone” (an app), Yunnan will promote the comprehensive transformation and upgrade of its tourist industry and speed up the construction of featured towns, in order to attract friends from China or other countries to travel, settle down, or live in Yunnan; and to “make Yunnan people healthier and attract people seeking to be healthy to Yunnan”.
Based on the two objective systems above, Yunnan has already made specific action plans and procedures. On the one hand, in order to make Yunnan people healthier, each prefecture or city shall have at least one AAA hospital; all the medical institutions and central hospitals at county level shall be qualified, and health clinics in towns and townships shall be able to “cover every town or township”. On the other hand, considering the abundant biological resources and the various ethnic characteristic cultures of Yunnan, the program of “traveling in Yunnan with one mobile phone” can be used to promote the transformation and upgrade of the tour industry and attract more people who seek to be healthy to Yunnan. Based on acceleration of the transformation and upgrade of the tour industry with “health recuperation + tourism”, to build the “brand of destination for healthy life” is becoming the most promising engine in the “green development concept” of Yunnan plateau.