Camphor oil enriches residents

CHENGDU - For many days each year, residents of Yibin county, Sichuan province, head to the hills to collect camphor tree leaves, as the biowaste is becoming a financial alternative to migration when it comes to making a living.

Fan Dechang, a resident of Hefeng village, hires several laborers to collect the leaves that fall from trees in his 3-hectare camphor grove.

"Almost everyone in Hefeng is picking up camphor leaves," Fan said.

Fan earned more than 100,000 yuan ($16,000) from his grove last year. On average, villagers earned 14,000 yuan each from the leaves, and total income generated for the village from the product topped 10 million yuan.

Yang Jingwen was once a migrant worker. One year he saved as much as possible and brought home 70,000 yuan, only to find his wife had earned more by collecting and selling the leaves.

"I decided to stay at home after that," he said. Now his family makes more than 200,000 yuan a year from the leaves - or, more precisely, the oil extracted from them.

Camphor oil has been shown to be effective in the treatment of anxiety, acne, inflammation and sore muscles. The oil is extracted in a distillation process.

"The price of camphor oil exceeds 120 yuan per kilogram," Fan said. "I believe we will earn a good income this year."

Many nearby residents also make a living from the camphor trees. Wu Shenkuan, from Qixing village, earns 100 yuan a day by sweeping the leaves together, while Liu Zhengqin of Yuexi village makes 120 yuan bagging them.

"I used to work away from my home in Guangdong province. Now I can make enough money without leaving," Liu said.

Yibin county was once covered with low-profit tea plantations, but they've been largely replaced by camphor trees. Now the county has a total of 21,000 hectares of camphor groves and produced more than 10,000 tons of camphor oil last year, according to Wang Enping, chief engineer at the local forestry bureau. The total output value of the local camphor processing industry was 1.5 billion yuan in 2017, Wang added.

Song Tao, an official in the local government, said Yibin is introducing three enterprises to develop camphor oil products with higher added value.

"Only by moving up the camphor industry ladder to higher-quality development can local residents secure a stable, long-term source of income," Song said.

Xinhua