Heze, Brazil deepen cooperation in peony, grape

Heze city, East China's Shandong province, hosted an exchange conference in Colombo city, Brazil on Oct 18, in an effort to promote its peony and grape industries.

The event is designed to provide a platform for Heze and Colombo cities for mutual communication and cooperation, said Zhou Shenghong, director of the Heze municipal publicity department, via a video link during the conference.

He hoped that the two sides could explore more possibilities of cooperation in agriculture, culture and tourism in the future.

Heze city is dubbed the "Peony Capital of China" and has a long history of cultivation in peony. Th city's Mudan district is the world's largest base for peony production, scientific research, exports and sightseeing, said Li Shumei, director of the Mudan district publicity department in a video during the conference.

According to Li, Mudan district has been making great efforts in promoting its peony industry in recent years and has developed more than 260 varieties of deeply processed peony products including peony essential oil, perfume, and tea.

"Heze not only has beautiful peony flowers, but also developed so many peony products," said Helder Lazarotto, mayor of Colombo. At the conference, he expressed his wishes to visit Heze in the future to have a deep understanding of the city's culture.

The new varieties cultivated in the Heze currently account for 80 percent of the domestic total. It has exported more than 2 million peony seedlings, accounting for nearly 90 percent of the country's total.

The peony business in Heze has evolved from sightseeing to manufacturing a variety of high-value peony-related products, such as seed oil, tea, cosmetics, and healthy food, after several years of industrial chain expansion and cultivation.

The city has placed great importance on the preservation and development of current peony planting and cultivation techniques. Heze peonies now come in nine types of colors and 1,259 cultivars.

Colombo, a city in the Southern Brazilian state of Paraná established sister city ties with Heze, since December 2006. Over the years, the two sides have strengthened exchanges in economy and trade. Lazarotto also expressed hope that in the future "the two sides continue to deepen exchanges in the fields of industry, culture and education".