KUNMING, May 28 (Xinhua) -- Lo Niyun, a businesswoman from Taiwan, has run a wasabi company in Yunnan province on the Chinese mainland for 17 years.
Lo, 56, is from Penghu County in Taiwan. Her wasabi-processing company mainly sells its products to Japan, the United States, and Thailand, but she is hoping the spicy horseradish relative will take off among consumers on the mainland.
Wasabi is most often made into a green mustard-like condiment with a strong, hot taste that is often served with sushi or seafood. Lo said wasabi kills parasites in the digestive system and has strong medicinal value.
Lo earned a bachelor's degree in food processing and, after graduation, started working at a company that sold specialties from Taiwan's Ali Mountain.
"Japanese restaurants had growing demand for wasabi grown in Ali. The profits were impressive," Lo said.
However, fierce competition forced Lo to find new wasabi cultivation areas outside Taiwan.
Lo came to Kunming, capital of Yunnan, in 1999.
"I was totally attracted to the pleasant climate and beautiful scenery when I got off the plane," she said. "On top of that, the local government's support for farmers in rural areas to develop the wasabi industry had reassured me to stay."
In 2001, Lo set up her company in Yiliang County, about 70 kilometers from Kunming. To ensure a smooth supply of the vegetables, Lo cooperates with farmers in the mountainous counties of Eryuan, Luquan, Huize, Yiliang and Baoshan.
"The clean air, water and soil in these cold highland areas are suitable for growing wasabi. Wasabi also brings higher incomes for farmers compared with other crops," Lo said.
Yu Canhui, a farmer in Eryuan county, has grown wasabi in Gaoluoxi village for about twenty years. Last year, he earned over 100,000 yuan (about 15,800 US dollars) in his 0.67-hectare hilly fields 2,600 meters above sea level.
"Before I turned to wasabi, I grew potatoes, but of course wasabi brings more money. We can get from 90,000 to over 150,000 yuan per hectare by growing wasabi," Yu said. "Since 2001, wasabi planters in my village have cooperated with Lo's company, which provides us a guaranteed price and a stable market."
Now Yu manages Lo's planting bases in Eryuan. Recently, he has been busy with other farmers harvesting wasabi leaves and stems.
Lo's company has nearly 134 hectares of planting bases and cooperates with about 600 farmer households in Yunnan, according to company manager Cao Yan. She thinks that wasabi has helped farmers living in rural mountains find a path to battle poverty.
"Farmers are not the only beneficiaries. The company also creates 120 jobs for locals," said Cao, a resident of Yiliang.
For over a decade, Lo focused on developing overseas markets by exporting fresh leaves, stems and roots of wasabi and wasabi sauce. Last year, the export volume was over 2,000 tonnes, which accounted for 90 percent of the total output.
Although the products are popular abroad, the export market is limited, Lo said.
"So we increased investment in downstream processing and developed products catering to consumers in the mainland," said Lo. "We blended wasabi with local specialties such as bean sauce, sesame biscuits and chili sauce."
With the new products, Lo said she aims to expand the mainland market share to 50 percent or even higher.
