Wushan Tung Trees

Wushan Tung Trees

　　Tung trees, also known as juanzi or muzi, are a unique source of cocoa butter-like oil in China. Our county produces 3,000 tons annually, ranking third among the country’s twenty major producing counties and second within the former Sichuan Province. The tung tree industry in Wushan has a long history, having reached a considerable scale as early as the Qing Dynasty. According to records from the Guangxu era of the Qing Dynasty<<巫山县志>It is noted: “Wood oil is most abundantly produced in this county, and is traded in regions such as Jingzhou and Shashi,” and “Extracting oil from tung seeds greatly benefits the people.” The county still has tung trees over a hundred years old that continue to bear fruit abundantly. Through decades of development, Wushan has established a complete set of integrated tung production techniques, covering variety selection (with four varieties developed), seedling cultivation and grafting, cultivation management, and harvesting and processing—particularly, Wushan’s tung bark separation and pressing technology is considered highly advanced on a national level.