discussion keeps the world turning this is roundtable Hello, welcome to roundtable where we serve up piping hot debates on the issues that sizzling China and beyond.
I'm Johan Lin with Leiming and Ishaan and we're staying high from Guado province.
Hello everybody. Hello!
For those of you who are listening Instead of watching the show, you can have a little riddle.
Take a guess where we are now.
And I have three hints.
First of all, it is a market.
Second of all, it is a really, really, really hot market.
And third, people sneeze, and cough, and share a little bit tears in the market.
It's a crying market.
It's a crying market.
Not because we are so moved, because we're making good deals, but because it is a dry pepper market for those of you who are watching, you can see the dry pepper whole around us, and it is the typical market where people negotiate a little bit, talk to each other, find their best deals, but something different in the market is that, instead of having a variety of different foods, fresh food, vegetable, fruits, they only sell this one or, they only vegetable that is pepper, dry pepper, different types of dry pepper, different shapes, different color, different levels of spiciness, definitely different
price, and they are all very, very hot.
And if you had a chance to watch the show, you will see we are surrounded by piles, beyond piles, and backs upon backs of red pepper.
And these are dry, and this is a place where people in action.
This is a special day, the 13th of May on the traditional Chinese calendar, and locally one three or eight is involved.
They date. People come together kind of like the fares that people host in rural areas that are not very populated.
So this is a very busy day and action already started before daybreak.
And we had to wait until the action settles down a bit, But still people are walking around, they're bargaining, they're packing and unpacking.
Whenever there is action, the air gets disturbed and, you know, the tiny particles of red pepper will somehow drift into our nostrils, will irritate our nostrils and we apologize in advance for any interruption and uranium in polite behavior on our parts.
Yes, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna sneeze and cough a little bit because I've been doing since I'm in the market.
It is quite a cool experience.
I've visited many fresh food markets and I cannot name all the products in the market, but here in this one I know they're peppers for sure, but there are too many types of peppers, local people grown pepper for a living and they sell pepper for a living, the processed pepper for a living.
They create new ways to consume pepper for a living.
That is why we're coming to this place.
Those of you who know that Roundtable has been in Guijo Province for a while.
We are doing China Horizon Special Series.
And we've been visiting the Tian Dong Nan Mao and Dong Prefecture.
And we've moved to Guayiang, which is the provincial capital.
And now we're in the city of Sunnie.
Which is also a very important and famous city here in Guijo.
Sure. Um, is historic, in fact, in the history of the Communist Party of China, there was a very important historic meeting during the long launch. I was again.
Yes yes, people must know the city from that part of the history.
It was a very important meeting building...
leading to the foundation, in fact, the very basis of the political system before the founding of the People's Republic China.
And now many years have passed and now the city is taking our new look at a different kind of red from the red peppers.
Indeed, I was interviewing several people that's working inside the pepper industry here in the city of Duney.
So apart from, say, the retourism is, and also historic tourism here in Duney.
They're also very much known and popular for eating pepper.
And in fact, that has over 400 years of history right here in the city of Duney as well.
So it's really exciting to just not eat chili pepper as a seasoning, but sniff it, feel it, and embrace it in an environment that's full of it.
So that was a new experience for me as well.
Before coming here, I was doing a little bit of research and I was trying to figure out how come this small place I'm talking about the County not the city of Disney.
City of Disney is definitely the home of peppers.
But the County of sets the Sats County is the heart of the whole industry, of the pepper industry in Guijo and probably throughout the entire country.
I do think this is a town of only 60 ,000 people around that.
Around that and it has the ability to influence the entire pepper industry in China.
It even has the privilege of setting the price tag or giving the indicator of different types of special yet delicious and also maybe really really spicy peppers for the entire market in Guijo and also in China.
And we weren't really trying to figure out the story.
How come, what happened?
Why are pepper lovers all around the world, all around China, come here to get their hybrids.
How come industry insiders decided that this little town just this little county just has it.
It has it for the industry, what happened?
And that's why we're here, even though we're sneezing and coughing all the time, we want to make sure that the story is told is discovered.
and we've talked to some people before doing the show so we've got some answers maybe we can share those answers but before doing that I have to ask this first do you like to eat spicy food?
Is it your thing? I mean from foodsy or food lovers point of view I do like eating spicy food but if it's my body or general health answering this question is totally no because it's somehow my because the suggested booster system cannot handle the fiery feeling after you swallow the spicy food here in China, I know the Chinese spicy food, some of you might not have tried it before, it's very different from the spicy sauces in North America or the seasonings in the European countries, so it has this fury side, so for those of you who are like me, we will probably just try to stay a little bit away
from spicy food in general.
Really? How about you, Limi?
I would borrow the Internet jargon in Chinese Jantaiying Daa describing someone who is not really an expert, or very well -versed in handling something, for instance in playing certain games, but they were quite addicted to the game.
So likewise my relationship with Spice and Peppers is such. I'm from Central China's Johnson problems where we tend to use little Peppers and Spice in I mean, it's being modest. Jonesi is famous for spicy food.
It is, but it doesn't run in my family.
I mean, it is a prevalent trending throughout the province, but sadly, I'm the Italian, that kind of guy.
Who used to grow up without a strong sense of spice in our cooking, but seeing as I'm from the province and having a custom to the diet, I tend to look for spices wherever I go.
That's what I would hope you see.
Because both you and Ushan, you say that you do not enjoy spicy food come on.
I've seen you putting in spoons after spoons of spicy oil, a little bit of dried pepper.
And also different types of sauces.
there are the chopped ones, the chopped pepper with other ingredients.
They are quite moist and wet and the juicy kind.
And there are the dried pepper.
The dried pepper are always or often combined with some other ingredients.
you put them or you include them in barbecue, in hot pot, and also there are the spicy or the pepper oil.
And that's all you.
And it's also something you want to little drizzle of it in the soup.
I've seen both of you doing that.
So stop saying, you do not do pepper, you do pepper quite well.
I know, my body may be, you know, resisting my temptation to take more spice, but again, my body also seems out of control When I reach out to my hand to that spoon or something.
Well, talking about my experience with spicy flavor, I have some experience, for instance, I think a spicy oil.
It's very good with noodles.
You can blend them with the broth.
They will plummet with the noodles, so their flavor is all saturated.
And then you use pepa powder.
Powder? Yeah with boiled meat or ribs.
You know what you're making?
You dip them there yeah barbecue yeah that works too probably with kebab barbecue works as well and then if you have a plain pig ribs boiled with cling broth and you if you want to add a little flavour you can use a broth of spicy spices so it's in Guiichu which called tan Shui a liquid kind of a seasoning really spicy yes yes right and that is the thing according to a couple of years ago research several years ago.
According to research, for years ago, the research was conducted by the food delivery platforms, which is definitely with good foundations with good indicators of good integrity.
But people are all here.
And people are saying, well, actually, it is the platform that is saying that those who enjoy pepper or enjoy spicy food account for nearly one fourth of the entire people who are ordering, and those who do not specifically say no pepper at all, account for only around 6%.
And on the platform it is the Soutrean cuisine and who naan cuisine which are famous for being very spicy but spicy in different ways.
We'll explain a bit later that are most popular.
So people are around the country enjoying spicy food and it's no longer original thing.
It's no longer a which type of cuisine enjoys spicy.
The most kind of thing.
It is definitely a national thing.
people could have a taste of spicy food, a little bit here, a little bit there, but definitely a little bit in their life.
Where we have this Chinese saying that people in the southwest prefer the highest volume of spiciness, while people from the north or the eastern side prefer the higher level of mild taste or sweetness, and I'm so here in Guojo, and the surrounding regions in southwest China is the perfect place to grow the chili pepper and also where people to enjoy very spicy food as well.
So, yeah, I think it has a lot to do with the weather here because it's such a humid place after we arrive here.
There's no need for any say body lotion on me personally, because I am from Beijing and that's a place where even back in summer, we have to apply body lotion because it's it because there's humid in the air and it's constantly raining in all different seasons and it's a perfect place to grow pepper and also people here they absorb a lot of the dampness in the air, which makes eating something hot and spicy in a way helping them to get rid of the dampness inside their body and to make them feel back on their feet so that they're not always so drowsy so tired.
It is also, yeah. So it is also the original reason how can people in, for instance, the Trump province, who invented province enjoy spiciness.
I remember watching a documentary talking about the introduction of pepper into the Chinese nation.
It was, around the 1400 to around 1500, the pepper was introduced and backed then.
People living in Guajo province, leaving in the Trump province.
they were not very wealthy people.
They do not enjoy the abundance of food and variety of ingredients, like today.
Even salt was in shortage.
Yes, that was precisely the reason people cannot get access to enough salt.
And they also would occasionally have the kind of food that are not very fresh anymore.
But they need a little bit of ingredient and sauce to cover that not going bad, but on pleasant smell and then they discovered pepper and they realized the spiciness can somehow be kind of a replacement or substitute for the lack of salt and that's when the level of spiciness increase and increase in keeping increased to you today and they enjoy and later on they found what Ushan said, that is when they live in a relatively damp and wet area if you Zoom a little bit of pepper, it is actually really good for your body, it makes you feel comfortable.
When I was visiting I think ChinghongDao, when I was in college, it was a study trip and at the 4th or 5th day, I went to a local grocery to buy the pepper kind of snack.
I don't know if you've tried it, the fried pepper accompanied with peanuts and they are in a paper bag and in that bag, you are not eating those as a dish, or as a kind of condiment.
You have it as a snack.
Yes, kind of like potato chips.
Another little potato chip.
It's a popular snack, but when I come from as well?
Yes, it's very crispy and it's really nice.
And the reason I was looking for those was because it's really, it feels so wet and I think - We're supposed to see you.
I can borrow some wisdom from ancient people in the places where it's really wet.
and I can get a little bit of comfortness from the pepper.
So, yeah, pepper. Right, so, quachole people and peppers, they really hit it up.
They really clicked, really.
There was a connection because you sound sort of mentioned this to a certain extent earlier, that is, the climate here is very good for growing peppers.
The average rainfall every year is about 12 hundreds of millimeters and the average temperature is around 15 degrees Celsius, not too high, not too low, and also the places always sunny, almost always sunny even though there's a lot of rain and this gets cloudy sometimes but the frost -free period lasts about 270 days a year so it is a very good place to grow pepper for them to prosper and grow to a perfect places, perfect shapes and perfect flavours, which is why quécho has become the place with the largest amount of peppers grown.
We are talking about in Chinese terms about five million mu, which translates to roughly 133 ,000 hectares.
Yes. China currently plants over 30 million mu.
That is, approximately two million hectares of chili peppers annually, accounting for around 10 percent of the country's total vegetable growing area making it one of the top -ranked crops across among all vegetables.
And as for Gueju, it's definitely in the first place when it comes to the area of land growing peppers and from the perspective of seed use, 95 percent of the chile seeds used in China are domestically produced and only 5 percent are imported.
And I don't know if I've shared this already, but both of you said you do not love pepper yet, you eat something really spicy.
Occasionally I love pepper.
I love different types of peppers, I love different types of spiciness, which explains the relatively less knees and coughing of me compared to those too very beryllion post next to me, but what I'm about to say is that I notice something different for Gui Jo pepper because our Gui Jo Cuisine spicy type because in shrimp province For instance, you go to shrimp province.
You go to chonging or chong do you enjoy hot pot Very delicious.
Very hot and very name because that include the green pepper, which are essentially, another type of ingredient.
No, it's not pepper, pepper.
It's a different kind of plant, that introduces a sense of numbness in the dish.
And the numbness is blended perfectly with a spice in it in your tongue.
It feels like instead of you eating them, they are eating you alive in a way.
That's a good thing for me, I like it.
Find it very exciting.
It's like watching a horror movie.
Instead of you watching it, it's your tongue and your lips watching it.
And after finishing the hot pot, the very authentic and spicy one, I can see my lips twice the size.
So that is the spiciness in sotram province.
And then I also travel to Hunan province.
My feeling is the taste of spiciness in Hunan province is also quite nice, but it's also quite salty.
I think they add the flavor together a little bit.
And then in Anhui for instance, I've tried the best, no offense to Jansi province.
I've tried the best chopped pepper sauce in Angktheir province.
I've lined it really tasty, and it's also very, it's a mixed flavor, it's complicated.
It's fermented. And I'll leave Jansi to you your province, your pepper.
You can share that.
But what I'm in way Joe, my feeling is that the pepper or the sauce in way Joe is very complicated.
You've got the sour and spicy kind of sauce, you've got the chopped and dried type of powder as sauce, and you also can enjoy a little bit of fermented beans paired up with systematically together.
I love great job! One thing that my interview you told me yesterday that really shocked I mean is that we know chili pepper is a type of seasoning.
But chili pepper from grey gel is the seasoning of chili peppers.
And that's flavor to the chili production.
Whether the chili comes from, say, other pepper growing regions in Xinjiang we grow autonomous region, or in Mongolia in North and China, wherever that pepper is coming from, they can get a little bit of, you know, just a dried grey -jo pepper inside to enhance the flavor, to mix it together, to get it even tastier, and that's also why the Gu overlapping, they are so relatively higher price as well.
As of my interview yesterday, the price was about $24 million per kilo, which is about $7 to $8 US per kilo, but comparing with that price in say the pepper from in Mongolia, that would be $7, too.
So that's, that would be $14, one per kilo so that's too about $2 so it's almost like twice the price of pepper from other places.
That's also determining on the fact that the agrozo pepper has its own unique flavor.
It features a lighter skin which makes it easier to be dried and it has bigger seeds that contains maybe a bit more flavor.
I don't know the chemical term for that but yeah it harbors more flavor and fragrance inside the seed and also all that adding up together make the entire pepper production line more say sophisticated right here in Guo Jo.
So that's why Guo Jo is really a nice place, tasty place for spicy food lovers.
I know this is not a competition but when we begin talking about prizes and expensive prizes of peppers then I proudly have a story to tell because in So you will see we proud ourselves for being able to take very spicy food.
A spicy duck. With blood.
And then duck with beers.
And then... What's more?
There's a lot of spicy dishes that people will like to take on as a challenge.
And also we proud also for being able to come up with the most expensive pepper throughout the country, I would believe, in some cases.
You can add yall. Hah, it's a...
Is it a place? Ugun is a place in El Parvins and they are home to the special type of peppers that's very fresh and that's very, you know, it's soft and it's not very spicy but it's very good of good tender and you cook them with sliced pork, with a heavy fire with hot pot and new...
Sounds delicious! Very, very, very delicious.
It's coming very popular throughout the country.
But the pepper that we talk about, some the first batch of the pepper every year can fetch up to 400 yuan per kilogram, and that's about $60 US.
That's crazy expensive.
It's like pepper looked shirier.
It's good. I know. It's the luxury brand of peppers.
I have to say, it's not only hearing China.
people enjoy pepper.
In South Africa, for instance, chili peppers are used to make zulu sauce.
A very spicy sauce made with hot chili peppers and tomatoes.
In Mexico, chili peppers are deeply embedded in its cuisine and its culinary culture and they are used in a wide variety of dishes such as moles, sausas and sauces made from different chili types.
And also in India, chile is definitely one of the most consumed despised in India.
And in Italy chili peppers are used in saulses, different types of sausses.
And beyond cooking italian of cultural beliefs, involving chili peppers in as a decoration at home.
It's a sign of protection and it introduces good luck.
And even in the United States chili peppers are commonly consumed in hot sauces added to a wide variety of foods.
and I think it's a little like China, it's a growing trend of people enjoying more and more spicy food, so it's definitely a thing for the entire world, not just for China.
Yeah. In the US, I've seen such a live show, live TV show, that features inviting celebrities on to the show and try out different levels of spicy chicken wings.
They call it the Carolina Reaper wings, the Buffalo wild wings.
and sometimes for the first bite some celebrities what might be crying and I can't take any more or sometimes they can eat all the way to the most spicy level that was provided on the table.
I wonder just how spicy those are?
But before the show, Limi told me that there's something similar in Jiangxi Province that can kind of match with this kind of, let's try, who can take more spicyness competition.
I know, I can't stress this enough because people like to brag about their ability to take a spicy food and in my hometown, we are trying to promote the gentle sequising with brands Jangt Xilà, Jangt Xilà is a spice so in order to do that they have similar competitions or challenges organized for people who can take spicy food and they do it in such a fun way they arranged for people to, you know, to be dipped in hot springs, and in the hot spring, there will be red peppers floating on the surface of the water and the contestants are tasked with taking as many peppers as possible within the matter
of a minute. And I think according to one story that I saw, the winner was able to finish 20 spicy peppers within one minute, Do they have to drink the bathwater while they're in it?
I only saw pictures.
I have no idea. Like swimming.
Maybe that's an option.
Wow. There's swimming in hot postures.
Just like a dairy adventure.
Master digital adventure.
It is, yeah. Wow. And here in Guexo, in fact, the Chili Pepper Plente Aeron Guageo accounts for approximately 1 -10th of the global total and 1 -6th of China's total.
So here in Gui Joe I can see people having that competition here in Gui Joe Particularly here in the city of Duyies.
Well, you should mention a little bit about different level of spiciness Yeah, we are in the China Chilles City, which is also CCC and in CCC not only can we see the very lively market Here in this huge hole or exhibition Center.
There is also a demonstration area that we visited yesterday.
There was this picture showcasing different levels of spiciness from the not very spicy one.
We've also seen a demonstration area showcasing different level of spiciness from the playing around kids can taste kind of spicy to the very, very super spicy.
You remember the super spicy one is not even a food anymore.
The Ultra Spicy one is used as...
Or the chemistry from the Ultra Spicy Spicy Pepper that is not good for human consumption, is used as a painting ingredient.
And it's painted under the bottom of huge cruise.
So when the cruise is traveling in the sea, other sea animals would not get attached and destroy or harm the bottom material.
The hull? Yes, of the ship.
Yeah, so say no to free loaders.
We apply spicy ingredients to the bottom of the ships.
Definitely. And the other is like Death.
The second most spicy pepper that is that something with the letter of the ship, a great ripper.
Oh, yes, yes. The God of the Helpedo or something?
Yes. Well, but I think it's because of the space.
bi -ciness. Definitely there are different levels of spiciness, but they all come from this one magical vegetable pepper.
And here when the dry pepper market, I keep calling it that because we've visited the market, some other parts of it besides the demonstration area, they can also help process a little bit, store a little bit, transport a little bit of the dry pepper.
And they're not only doing matchmaking among different enterprises in different companies, They are also introducing a different level of different types of services right behind us You can see this huge screen Show -casing something kind like the curves and also the indicators of a stock market.
It's quite like that The dry pepper index Bias and sellers around the country They look at this information to decide when, where?
and at what price they would like to sell the stock of red peppers because to be more specific, where we're sitting at right now, the CCC, the China, Chile city, it's not really a city, but rather in the operational area.
Yeah, the operational center of the local pepper, industry, where Chile pepper industry.
And right now we're sitting in the, say they're drying and packaging market.
But outside of this particular area, there are also cold storage.
There is the automated drying processing lines.
There is the warehouse where more pepper are being stored.
Also places to keep the fresh peppers separated from the dried ones and also like agencies of the companies.
So these are all part of the scenes that together put forward this CCC, the China Chile city.
China Chiles City. It's quite fascinating.
We've been visiting some of the production lines.
is not THAT complicated if you think about it, you've got the pepper, you dry them, and you remove the stem from the pepper so that they are the product, but they're not the final product.
The kind of are already the product that you can sell, but you also have to put them into different categories depending on the quality of the pepper.
You've got this one type of pepper and you take it in your hand, you decide whether or not it's big enough, whether or not it's red enough, whether or not the skin is tasty enough, whether or not the season side have enough number of season in the pepper.
So that it's spicy enough.
And all that was previously done by manual labor.
People sitting down, selecting the pepper, figuring out which one is the first class pepper, which one is the second class pepper, which peppers can only be shredded and made into pepper powder and maybe not the most pricey ones.
But we visited the production line and all those can be accomplished by machines.
And think about how interesting it is because different peppers, I mean different types of peppers, are quite different, the size of it, the color of it, and also the texture of it.
They are different yet with this just one machine, if you put in the parameter of different aspects, you would be able to get them put.
You showed it out. You earned it out and no matter which type of paper you're talking about.
Sure, yeah. After all, this is just a place of packaging and sorting out.
I actually saw the local workers that were cutting the stems yesterday and I tried to get my microphone closer to catch the sound up that sound.
It was really lovely and they were looking curious at me because they didn't understand what I was doing.
But still they were really fluent and quick with their hand motions of cutting the storms and picking out those black looking or dark looking over heated over dried pepper products.
In fact, right in front of us, there's a pile of those that's considered to be waste.
So, and the good ones are being backed into those backs, those white and green backs behind us.
And these are the ingredients that's going to be shipped to the different companies or different restaurants as the ingredients to be further processed into pepper products.
And those that you've noticed might be the very best ones because they talk to people working in the factory, they say that they would sort the peppers out by machine as the first step and then from the very best peppers they would try to pick out the best out of the best. Which can be sold in higher price.
And those who were determining on the prize are what they called the chili broker.
So, the role of a chili broker is more like the middleman between the buyer of the chili products and say the seller of it.
There are over around 3 ,000 to 4 ,000 of those that's calculated by the China Chili City officially, and there are some that's right here in the Shazzel County in the or are scattered all around the country, they're walking around in different pepper planting regions in China, to negotiate price, to bring the Guijo Pepper outside of Guijo to all over China to be served onto your table even though you're not really right here in Guijo.
And some of those brokers, well, Minderree shared a story to me, a lot of these brokers we see today, they are the third generation broker.
right for over 60 years people in zoonese have been doing this kind of business is dealing with pepper products and backs and backs of pepper to be shipped outside and negotiate the price so nowadays they call themselves the third generation because their grandpa we're doing what they are doing now differently because 30 years ago it was a it was a different way of doing They told us that about 80 percent of the papers that they process here, they are grown at massive farms, not individual farmers that are living rural areas.
But back in the days, the Chile broke us.
They were small businesses, they were dead levels like to quote the word you used earlier.
Many of them, they were individuals who thought this is a good idea to go and work in the paper industry.
they would collectively three or four of them would rent a car or invest in a truck They would rent a truck or they would invest in a truck and they would drive a truck to the doorsteps of farmers who used to grow peppers They would collect the peppers.
But back in the days the rose won't as good as they are now and The is a quayjo also is a very mountainous area so they sometimes have to pack the peppers up to what do we call them.
They sometimes have to fully pack the trucks so that they have no place to sit, they have to sit on top of the piles and piles of red peppers.
So, it can be very dangerous back in the days for the first generation of pepper brokers.
But now for the third generation they will play the capital game, they will pour the resources and their connections, they will try and and they established some control or some say over a particular type of Peppers throughout the industrial train, the upstream downstream.
So they can sort of game a level of say in determining the prices to some extent.
There are good reasons for that because previously you can imagine people do not have cell phones.
They cannot communicate instantly.
They do not know whether or not to my precious pepper that I spent a year growing would go for a good price would get me some delicious meal that I have been looking forward to for a really long time.
So what I can do, I wait for these pepper brokers to come to my home, and they will give me a prize.
I can compare the prize with previous years, but what do I know?
I do not know how other people are doing this year.
So I would definitely go to the chili pepper broker that I trust and I give them the entirety of my stock, all of my peppers, and that was it for my entire year.
And we even heard from people working here that previously the best time for selling pepper, The busiest time for pepper dealing was during around August or September.
Because these families would send their kids to school and it's the start of school year, so they have to pay the money the entire term.
You have to get their kids some supply and also bugs and also pay for the tuition.
So that was the busiest time but that situation has changed definitely for today, because we have that huge screen right behind us.
The price is almost instantly updated.
You get to know different price for a different type of pepper on your cell phone.
Now pepper people we Pepper people because they deal pepper for living, they have that application in their phone, each and every one of them, so they know the price and they know one to stock a little bit, one to sell a little bit and they can even send their peppers into a fridge store restaurant here in the market, and with a relatively cheaper price, the market would help them the market by saying the market actually mean the China Choles City would help them door, the pepper, so that they do not have to worry about the pepper go bad.
Yeah, it's really interesting you were mentioning about the prize variety each year because the China chili city it was built, it was ready to be put into businesses in 2017 around that time, but before that time, people in Grigo, they still grow pepper?
They still sell pepper, but it just in, say, a group trading way not in such a systematic, well organized, centralized way.
So before the CCC became that invisible hand in the market, the price each year may vary from very high to very low because maybe one year more pepper planners they realize, oh, well, it's really profiting for me to grow peppers.
So I'll grow more. And then for the next year, that growing more from previous years is going to lead to a price drop in the next year.
So the price is always waving.
And people cannot guarantee a very stable payment.
But after the China chili city become, say, the major pillar of the local pepper industry, they combining with investment from different corporations and companies and also with the support from the provincial government and also from the bank, they now have the cold storage where they can get the pepper and store for one to two years, say even the currency to maintain its value, so that the pepper that's bought from the planners themselves are not going to cost them to lose money over the years and then when they sell it they can still maintain the pepper to be fresh in a good shape to be served
to the fit market in the future.
So yeah that's to say the very important role the China Chile city is playing in recent years especially after 2017 -2018 where hosting this.
They call it the Chile Expo every year, where people from all over China, from all over the world even come to Zoon -nie to you know, walk around, take what type of what variety of Chile public they prefer and bring their products to further regions outside of Zoon -nie and that's how we see all the data and the price surges and even though they've changed every once in a It's still within the relatively balanced manner and that's have the whole system to think and it's also a good thing for the buyers as well Yeah, for the buyers one day Were buying peppers previously they have to think about whether
or not the pepper day bi can accommodate or can meet their needs So they have to stock the pepper a little which means that their currency would not be that liquid in the company they need more cash or they need more flow of cash to maintain to expand the production line, to find good marketing campaign, and maybe to invest in creating or to doing research and some new types of pepper sauce, they wanted to research for.
They didn't use to have the money.
But now, not having to or not being forced to stock more raw ingredients, they can actually do those things that we talked about so it's a good thing for the pepper buyers as well as the pepper sellers but I was kind of worried for the brokers I mean if you've been doing this for quite a long time and they have the eye for the best type of pepper I was told that for us one we have for example my personal favorite hot pot sure I see the pepper floating happily swimming on They're just pepper.
They're just pepper, they're you know shorter, larger, beautiful red peppers, and they look delicious, that's all I can tell from the pepper I see.
Yet, for the pepper brokers, they get to see which exact type the pepper is which one's better, which one's more expensive, which ones are chopped up and made into sauce that are you know, nah, for their taste.
Not for me, all the peppers.
So I was worried for them, will they still be able to find a way of living to support the family?
They have this great eye for pepper.
Yet machines are replacing them.
Are they? Obviously the way of life and the way of work have somehow evolved over time for this pepperbrokers over the years.
We talk about how the first generation of pepperbrokers, they used to risk the writing a truck or buying a truck to do transportation.
But there was a time where price was in transparent for everybody in the game.
So they had a huge space to manipulate the prices.
They can push the price down when they negotiate with the individual farmers.
They can push the price up when they talked to buyers in urgent needs.
So the space was open.
the profit was huge for them.
But then with the advent of the CCC, the information on paper prices has become immediately available to whoever that's in the business.
So the room has become narrow for them.
But the gain has changed its rules.
For them, the CCC not only provides the pricing tax for people in the industry.
They'll also serve as a form of verification or certification.
So we're talking about Guijo, but also other places in the country, they grow peppers.
Because of the name of the CCC here, is so influential, people have to sometimes transport their peppers to here, CCC to get certified.
Whether there's level one, level two, level three, and then once they get that certification, they find it easier to sell them to buyers across the country if not around the world.
So the game has changed for them.
But over time, the CCC is also looking to expand its business.
Now there are a service platform in real terms in the real world that looking to expand their service.
The scope of the service by putting it to the cloud, putting it online, the working, on improving their service system.
So buyers around the world, they don't have to travel here per se, they could use that platform to shop online, much like what you do with Amazon or Talbar in China, so buyers and sellers they can log on to this platform and there be even some financial services provided by the platform.
So maybe that's the rule for the third, if not the fourth, fifth generation of paper brokers in the making.
I actually met a short video yesterday, when I was browsing the I have seen several pepper brokers talking in a short video selling the pepper and talking about their occupation and talking about how come that with their specialty, they get to have access to multiple different types of peppers because if you think about the farmers, they are definitely aspart in the exact spice or exact type of pepper.
They grow and for the buyers, they would search for the pepper that they need to use for product but it is the brokers who actually know almost all of the different types of peppers, the advantages and disadvantages of one aspect, and also the other aspects of the pepper they know everything, so for buyers, they can help you find the peppers that you're looking for, that you didn't even know it this previously if it's not for them.
So they do still have this to defend the industry do you have the knowledge they have the sources of fires and sellers which is why for the third generation if not forced many of them have already started to organize their own plantation they talk to the farmers the planters that they know of and they get their farms sometimes they would hire workers to grow in the farm grow the type of peppers that they they can also cooperate with the farmers, give them a bottom lie, a safety net for price, so that they do not lose their passion in growing the peppers.
So many things are still happening for the brokers, after talking to people working here.
I was reassured a little bit and I was happy that to know, at least in the industry of peppers, human beings are not replaced by AI, just yet.
And speaking of passion, As far as I've been hearing from mine reviews and also the companies and also local people here people they have faith in this whole industry that the majority of them here in the N .E.
are participating right now because as of 2024 the total volume of transactions in the market here in the CCC in China, Chile, city reached over 500 ,000 tonnes with the trading volume of 10 billion yuan, that's over 1 .3 billion US dollars.
And that's just within one year.
And also my interviewee mention that here in GuiJoh Province almost every county inside the whole province are more or less participating in the planting or processing or the shipment of chili pepper products.
So it's more like a provincial, all participating kind of industry that is not easily given not just simply because automation is everywhere.
And also one good example to show how passionate people are about this is that, you know, Gueyjo as one province, they have a very high volume of dry pepper production because they have a very sophisticated, automated drying processing line right here in Gueyjo.
I think in the city of DunEE, there are over a thousand of such drying lines.
Some are, say, state -owned, some are just supported by just local government or just individual companies.
Previously, we've mentioned how July, August and September tends to be the busiest time for the local people to process Chili Pepper.
That's when they harvest them the most. That's when usually the local drying lines work the things the healthy at 24 hours but during the rest of the year is always resting.
But during the pandemic years, in the past few years, provinces nearby in the south from Guangxi and Hainan provinces in the west, the Sichuan province in the city of Chongqing.
And then on the east side, with Hounan and Hubei province, they all have fresh chili pepper grown, but failed to dry on their own.
And due to the pandemic, the transportation were kind of limited.
So what the local government did was that the whole South western region of China that operated to have the majority of the fresh pepper to be shipped here in Guajo and get dried and get stored here in the CCTV in the China chili city so that the loss from other provinces regarding their chilli economy is not that bad during that time.
So that's one example of how people are passionate about this whole industry that they're participating in and that they're fully supporting as well.
So it's not something to be easily replaced by AI for sure.
and it is very sure to see.
And also, I think that's the beauty of having an entire industry from the upper screen to the lower screen.
All of the industrial link is relatively concentrated in a smaller area so that the upgrade of each and every industrial link can happen faster.
And that happening or that change can affect other industrial part.
And also people can get to talk to each other easier.
they get to communicate easier.
And these kind of information platform get to be built easier, which would definitely be a huge impetus for the development of the entire industry.
At least here in Guangzhou, and definitely affecting the industry in China.
And we see that the global chili pepper market size was valued at approximately $1 .2 billion in 2024 and is expected to grow a compound venue growth rate of 6 .4 percent to reach 1 .8 billion US dollars by 2030, driven by increasing demand worldwide.
Though we talk to people here, and they say that they are still trying really hard to meet the needs of the domestic market because their peppers are just so good and domestic people Gwejo pepper so they're not doing too much with the overseas market but definitely they are selling product to certain companies in outside of China already and with this kind of growing trend.
I can see them opening the International Market quite soon.
So yeah now they think it's about the time for the local government or the local pepper operational standards to start the host, maybe something like pepper or chili pepper tourism, or to put on more efforts on introducing their local pepper culture to other parts of the world to welcome people to recognize that right here in Southwest China's Guijo Province, we have such a pillar industry of chili pepper that's not so much comparing with what you guys add in the Buffalo Wild Wings.
But still it's very famous locally and it's very tasty.
as affirmed by the majority of the Chinese people.
And also, we can still find different ways to eat pepper.
You know, there are very trendy and popular ice cream in the flavor of the logama pepper.
I got to try that. You see, and also you can have pepper flavor chewing gum.
You can have pepper flavored, of course, different types of snacks already, quite spicy.
They use pepper already.
so even in the area of food, of snacks, of 20 product that has a label on it, that is collaborated from a pepper industry.
With another, I don't know, 20 -toi industry can also happen in the market.
These traditional pepper industries are also doing all these things to cater to the needs of the younger generation.
Making it fun and spicy and hot for the younger generation.
But I have to say, logama is no longer the go -to brand or it is still one of the most popular ones But over the years.
I've tried so many different types of different brands of chili pepper sauces And they are inventing they are trying to be more healthy even because for Chinese people We believe that one the chili pepper sauce is good You have to add a lot of salt in it to make it to make the flavor heavy and rich and sophisticated enough yet it's not considered something so healthy which is why a lot of chili pepper sauce company are doing the research to reduce the level of salt in the sauce and still have the same flavor that you used to be able to enjoy.
still because people nowadays would like to have a healthy lifestyle, healthier lifestyle that is why these trends are also happening in the pepper industry and with more and more companies and enterprises doing more research and trying to create a better product.
I get to see the thrive and booming of the fiery industry.
And that brings us to the end of today's roundtable.
Roundtable is here in Guaejo Province and we're doing a special series China Horizons.
Hopefully the future, we can take you to more places and looking into those fun and interesting and inspiring stories that we have been shared today.
So thank you so much for listening.
Thank you so much for spending this one spicy hour with us.
We'll see you next time, bye -bye.
Bye -bye.
