Young entrepreneurs take Guizhou's small yellow ginger online, reaching national markets

At 2 p.m., workers skillfully sort, pack, and label small yellow ginger inside an e-commerce warehouse in Zhenning Buyi and Miao Autonomous County, Anshun city, southwest China's Guizhou Province. Packages of the ginger gradually fill large trucks bound for places including Guangdong, Zhejiang, and Shanghai. Within 48 hours, this nationally recognized geographical indication product will appear on dinner tables across these regions.

Behind this bustling scene lies a remarkable entrepreneurial story. Yao Bingzhong, Wu Jinjie, Zhang Yangyang, and Deng Yusheng—four post-90s partners with an average age of 31—spent three years building a complete supply chain covering procurement, warehousing, sales, and logistics, propelling Zhenning's small yellow ginger onto the national stage through e-commerce.

Workers sort small yellow ginger in Zhenning Buyi and Miao Autonomous County, Anshun city, southwest China's Guizhou Province. (Photo/People's Daily Online)

In late 2021, Yao was dispatched by his company's headquarters to the county to manage the operations of an e-commerce warehouse, facing a sparse handful of partner enterprises. "At the time, there weren't many e-commerce businesses in the county," Yao recalled. To break the deadlock, he began independently procuring agricultural products for online sales.

Wu was then leading his cotton towel processing team in search of a business transformation. Deng served as the general agent for a courier company in Zhenning, grappling with persistently high costs. Zhang, working in cold-chain delivery, was also seeking new opportunities.

The turning point for all four came through the initiative of Wang Yuanyong, then deputy director of the management office of the county's light industry park, who brought them together.

They established four independent companies, which formed a complete supply chain centered on Zhenning's small yellow ginger. In their first year of collaboration, the team's revenue jumped to 22 million yuan (about $3.15 million), Yao said.

A livestreamer promotes small yellow ginger in Zhenning Buyi and Miao Autonomous County, Anshun city, southwest China's Guizhou Province. (Photo/Guizhou Daily)

In 2024, the team's sales of small yellow ginger exceeded 35 million yuan, while the combined annual output value of the four companies surpassed 100 million yuan.

Today, the team is gradually expanding to sell products like Chinese arrowhead and orah mandarins, while also sourcing agricultural products beyond Guizhou Province.

Despite commanding over 90 percent of online sales of Zhenning's small yellow ginger, the team still has vast market potential compared with the county's total 1-billion-yuan small yellow ginger industry.

Zhenning's small yellow ginger cultivation has a long history. Beyond climate advantages, generations of local villagers have passed down cultivation techniques that ensure the ginger's quality. In 2020, Zhenning small yellow ginger was recognized as a national geographical indication product. In 2025, the cultivation area of small yellow ginger in the county reached 141,500 mu (about 9,433.33 hectares), making it a crucial industry for local prosperity.

"Currently, traditional offline distribution channels remain dominant," Zhang said. While continuing to expand online business, their next step will extend into offline bulk trade and deep processing—an approach aligned with the county's small yellow ginger industry development strategy.

"At present, our output value is mainly concentrated in the primary industry," said Yan Jialin, deputy director of the county's agriculture and rural affairs bureau, adding that the county is exploring deep processing.

In the workshop of a company in the county's industrial park, fresh small yellow ginger undergoes processes like washing, slicing, drying, and extraction to transform into ginger powder, ginger slices, ginger beverages, ginger shampoo, and other products.

"Using Zhenning small yellow ginger as raw material, we've developed over 10 product varieties that not only sell outside the province but also are exported to Malaysia, South Korea, and other countries," said Xia Yingshu, chairman and general manager of the company.

To continuously enhance products' added value and market competitiveness, the company has invested substantial funds to introduce advanced equipment and technology and upgrade research capabilities. In 2024, the company's revenue was approximately 25 million yuan, with investment in product research and development, equipment, and technological upgrading reaching at least 5 million yuan.

"With the rise of the small yellow ginger industry, related supporting enterprises in packaging, logistics, e-commerce, and food processing have continuously emerged within the industrial park, further energizing the county's economic development momentum," Yan said.