Zhouli Sweet Potato Vermicelli

Zhouli Sweet Potato Vermicelli

Zhouli Sweet Potato Vermicelli is a geographically protected product.

　　Starting from Anyue County and heading west for over 40 kilometers, you’ll arrive in Zhouli Town. Here, fields upon fields of sweet potatoes turn green, and when harvest season comes, workshops bustle with activity, machines roar, and barrels of sweet potato paste are pressed out. After being rinsed, filtered, and heated, rows of vermicelli hang across fields and courtyards, resembling white ribbons descending from the sky. People say this is the “Kingdom of Sweet Potato Vermicelli.”

　　Since the 1970s, Zhouli has processed 40% of its freshly harvested sweet potatoes into vermicelli, producing over one million kilograms annually. As product quality improved, Zhouli vermicelli gained increasing fame, sales soared, and the processing industry expanded rapidly. By the late 1980s, an inter-provincial specialized vermicelli market had been established.

　　The Zhouli Vermicelli Market is nestled along Sichuan’s north-south highway transportation artery. Whether in peak or off-season, during busy or slack farming periods, the market is bustling with producers and traders, trucks and tractors transporting vermicelli coming and going in an orderly fashion. A strong culture of ethical business practices prevails, presenting a vibrant scene full of market economy vitality. It has been rated as a provincial-level civilized market for two consecutive years and was commended by the State Council.

　　The Zhouli Vermicelli Market gathers over five million kilograms of vermicelli, more than 1.5 million kilograms of sweet potato starch, and over five million kilograms of fresh sweet potatoes produced annually by 70% of Zhouli’s farming households. It attracts over 300 individual traders from provinces and regions such as Xinjiang, Tibet, Jilin, Liaoning, Shaanxi, Hunan, Qinghai, Yunnan, and Guizhou, as well as perennial procurement agents from some state-owned and collective enterprises, along with numerous seasonal and temporary vendors. The parking lot is always filled with vehicles of all sizes waiting to be loaded, and dedicated storage warehouses are often packed, with traders waiting to complete deals and transport goods. Zhouli produces around 12,000 tons of sweet potatoes annually, offering an abundant supply of raw materials. Even if the county relies on traditional household methods to produce and sell 10 to 15 million kilograms of vermicelli per year, it only accounts for a fraction of the total sweet potato yield. When Ji Min-kuan, then Vice Director of the State Science and Technology Commission and former Governor of Sichuan Province, visited Zhouli, he said: “Zhouli should be developed as the largest sweet potato vermicelli distribution hub in the province as soon as possible.” Xie Shijie, former Provincial Party Secretary, also spoke highly of the Zhouli Vermicelli Market.

　　The economic benefits of Zhouli vermicelli production have attracted considerable interest. In 1989, Zhouli Town raised 200,000 yuan to establish the Zhouli Yinsi Sweet Potato Vermicelli Factory, which has an annual production capacity of 700,000 jin (approximately 350,000 kilograms) of sweet potato vermicelli, achieving semi-mechanized and mechanized production. The factory’s vermicelli—silvery white, transparent, evenly textured, delicious, easy to store, long-lasting when cooked, and not falling apart when reheated—is extremely popular. As a result, the market expanded from its original few hundred square meters to over 3,000 square meters, adding nearly a thousand fixed stalls. Today, the Zhouli Vermicelli Market has grown into the largest specialized vermicelli market in Southwest China, attracting over 5,000 vermicelli specialists to set up shop here. The annual trading volume exceeds 10 million kilograms, with products sold to 18 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions across the country, generating total sales of over 20 million yuan. The market contributes nearly 400,000 yuan in market trade taxes to the state each year.

　　The production area of Zhouli Sweet Potato Vermicelli includes the administrative regions of six towns and townships under the jurisdiction of Anyue County, Ziyang City, Sichuan Province: Zhouli Town, Baohua Township, Qianfo Township, Longqiao Township, Gongqiao Township, and Nanxun Township.