Jiangnan farmers profit from purple perilla plant specialization

Farmers in Jiangnan village, Jilin province have been busy picking purple perilla leaves on their farmlands lately.

Purple perilla, which has unique active substances and nutrients, can be used for medicine, food, oil and spices.

The village of Yilaxi township in Yongji county has a long history of planting purple perilla for over 100 years.

In the 1990s, after getting the news that South Korea had a high demand for purple perilla seeds and salted purple perilla leaves, the Yongji county government began to guide local farmers to adjust their planting structure.

Since then, the county has grown to develop an annual planting area of 500 hectares making it the core producer of purple perilla in the province.

It yields 750 metric tons of purple perilla seeds and 1,000 tons of purple perilla leaves annually.

"Villagers can earn around 40,000 yuan ($5,581) in profit from each hectare, which greatly inspires their enthusiasm," said village secretary Zeng Xiangfu. "There are also three factories engaged in rough purple perilla processing around the village."

Data from the county government shows that Yilaxi has become one of the major purple perilla production bases in Northeast China, and provided salted purple perilla leaves to around half of markets across South Korea.