Zhuanghe, Liaoning: 400 Million Tussah Industry Calls For "Returning Silkworms To Forests"

At the moment, Zhuanghe's cocoon picking season has just ended, and this little bug is giving Zhuanghe.

Cocoons are 16 yuan per catty.

The highest price history

Yesterday morning, Zhang Xiping, the silkworm farmer of Mu Yu Shan village in the fairy cave town of Zhuanghe, sold the last batch of cocoons, and the joy of harvest climbed up the brow.

"Sericulture for more than 30 years, for the first time encountered such a high market.

This year's output is also about 20% higher than that of last year.

Zhang Xiping told reporters that this year, his family produced a total of more than 1600 catties of cocoons, sold nearly 30 thousand yuan.

It is understood that there are more than 10 thousand silkworm farmers in Zhuanghe area this year.

The raw silk produced by processing silk reeling factory has also hit a new high this year.

"Last year, the price of raw silk sold in the local silk reeling plant in Zhuanghe was 320 thousand to 400 thousand yuan per ton, and this year it reached 500 thousand to 550 thousand yuan per ton."

Gong Xingyuan said.

The reporter learned that Zhuanghe silkworm is divided into spring silkworm and autumn silkworm, spring silkworm July harvest cocoon, and the autumn cocoon harvest season in October, is also the weight of the Zhuanghe silkworm.

"Now, the annual output of silkworm cocoons in Zhuanghe silkworm is more than 7000 tons, and its output value exceeds 1 hundred million."

Gong Xingyuan said that the ancient and mysterious industry of putting silkworms to pick cocoons has formed an industrial chain in the Zhuanghe area.

870 thousand acres of cultivated silkworm

Spit 400 million in a year

"In the Liaoning area, the top three places for silkworm production and silkworm industry are in Fengcheng, Kuandian and Zhuanghe respectively. The sericulture in Zhuanghe area accounts for 80% to 90% of total Dalian."

An industry insider said that there were 26 townships in Zhuanghe, 16 of which were sericultural, while the fairy cave Town, Rong Huashan Town, GUI Yun Linghai and bu Yun Shan township were Zhuanghe's "silkworm raising town".

"There are 1 million 460 thousand mu of oak forests in Zhuanghe, including 870 thousand mu of tussah farms."

Gong Xingyuan, deputy director of Zhuanghe sericultural workstation, said that the huge sericulture industry has promoted the extension of the industrial chain to the lower reaches.

Today, there are 32 silk reeling factories in Zhuanghe.

"Zhuanghe produces 7000 tons of cocoon per year. These cocoons are not enough for so many filature factories. Many silk reeling factories are cocoons from Fengcheng, Xiuyan and Jilin."

Mr. Li, director of a silk reeling plant in Zhuanghe, said that the local cocoons could basically meet the capacity of these reeling factories for half a year.

On the other hand, local cocoons are still outflowing.

"Preliminary estimates show that about 30% of Zhuanghe's cocoons flow to Jiaodong peninsula.

This cross flow has expanded the scale of Zhuanghe cocoon processing industry, estimated that its output value has exceeded 300 million yuan, plus silkworm industry, Zhuanghe silkworm contributed about 400 million yuan output value to the local.

Gong Xingyuan said.

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It is to perfect the industrial chain.

Returning silkworms to forests

The confusion of an industry

The reporter has learned that the silkworm picking cocoons in Zhuanghe area have a history of more than 300 years. The silkworm farmers take their families as their units and put silkworms, silkworms and cocoons to sell silk in the naturally formed large oak forests, forming an ancient industry.

Today, however, this ancient industry is facing confusion and future choices.

The raw silk processed by Zhuanghe silk reeling mill is mainly exported to the outside world, most of which are exported to foreign countries, such as India, Singapore and Europe. Foreign processing enterprises have processed raw silk into silk, silk spinning or high-end clothing, and have gained greater profits through high added value.

Mr. Li, director of the silk reeling factory, said that the local silk reeling plant in Zhuanghe was just pulling cocoons into raw silk, which belonged to primary processing.

Even though there has been some deep processing of silkworm cocoons and silkworm chrysalis, such as its development and utilization in medicine or male silkworm moth wine, its scale and processing capacity are very small, which has little effect on the silkworm industry in Zhuanghe.

On the whole industrial chain of Zhuanghe sericulture, the deep processing links are missing, and a large profit is lost.

Why can't we extend the industrial chain and set up a silk spinning mill in the local area? The insiders say with great reluctantly: "from the perspective of protecting nature and ecology, the relevant departments have proposed returning silkworms to forests. This makes many silkworms feel that there is a sword of Damour and Chris hanging on their heads, and the foreign capital is not afraid to enter hastily. The future of the industry is full of uncertainties."

In fact, according to insiders, in recent years, the scale of sericulture in Zhuanghe has basically remained stable, even shrinking.

With the increasing income of migrant workers and the increasing attraction of cities, many sericultural farmers who left behind in the mountains have moved their hearts. Some have abandoned silkworms and go out to work. In addition, the cost of raising silkworms has gradually increased, and some of them have also come back.

The industry insiders said.

So, how to balance the relationship between sericulture industry and ecological protection? Gong Xingyuan, deputy director of Zhuanghe sericultural workstation, said that during silkworm eating period, silkworms' silkworms would indeed be eaten "silkworm", which to some extent affected the ecology.

However, if the sericulture industry in Zhuanghe is kept at present scale, especially if it controls the density of silkworm eggs so as to ensure that the oak forests are recuperated, the impact on ecology will be very limited.

"Zhuanghe's sericulture industry has been inherited for hundreds of years, which means that the industry has no serious impact on the ecology. Otherwise, those oak forests have long been eaten by silkworms.

Gong Xingyuan said.