The general office of Sichuan Provincial People’s Government recently issued Opinions on Promoting the Sustainable and Healthy Development of Zanthoxylum Bungeanum Industry, stating that in 2022, Sichuan will become the largest province in the national Zanthoxylum bungeanum industry, its planting area will reach 6 million mu, the comprehensive output value 30 billion yuan, and the fruit processing conversion rate 70%.

　　According to Opinions, our province will make efforts in six aspects: base construction, supporting processing, brand strengthening, industrial integration, market developing and risk prevention. The base construction is based on the plan made according to suitable regions and varieties of Zanthoxylum bungeanum, and the construction of regional seed park and strong seed and seedling breeding base will be included in the major forestry projects in the province. In terms of the supporting processing, we will give priority to the protection of the processing projects and the construction land of the park, include the purchase of prickly ash processing equipment into the scope of subsidies for the purchase of agricultural machinery, and implement agricultural production price in the initial processing link; we will also put it in the key scientific research subjects, finding out its edible and medicinal value to guide the research and development of new products. In terms of brand enhancement, we will gradually establish the certification system and product traceability query management mechanism to create provincial public brand “Sichuan prickly ash”.

　　The Opinions puts forward that our province will explore the socialized service system of prickly ash planting, management and protection, picking, processing and technology in the main production its area. In particular, the technology commissioner system should be implemented step by step to enhance the technological content of planting and processing.

　　Sichuan prickly ash has been planted for more than 2000 years. As of last year, the province’s prickly ash planting area reached 4.39 million mu, ranking first in the country, with an annual output of over 6 tons and output value of 4.5 billion yuan. At present, Zanthoxylum bungeanum has been planted in more than 120 counties of the whole province, and 79 counties in 88 poverty-stricken ones are its suitable areas.