Speaking of the Ningxia Hui autonomous region reminds many people of its wine industry, which local officials said is a microcosm of China’s development in the sector.
In recent years, the autonomous region in Northwest China has combined the wine industry’s development with ecological restoration, and improved its technological innovation and cultural connotations. It has also focused on building brand and increasing the added value and comprehensive benefits of the industry.
Ningxia has listed wine as the top of its six pillar industries, setting a goal of developing itself into a “wine capital of the world”. As home to the Ningxia National Open Development Comprehensive Pilot Zone for Grape and Wine Industry, Ningxia is to make use of its policy advantages to realize this.
The pilot zone — the first of its kind in the country and approved by the State Council in 2021 — will help Ningxia better use its location, as a node of the Silk Road Economic Belt, and better use its natural advantages for planting wine grapes.
The autonomous region takes ecological restoration as the first factor in developing the wine industry. Through the grape plantations, Ningxia has turned about 350,000 mu, or 23,310 hectares, of mountainous wasteland into oases.
It also plans to build a modern wine industry cluster with higher product quality, strong core competitiveness and deep industrial integration by launching a series of new technologies, development models, business forms and projects.
After the eastern foothills of Helan Mountain won honorary titles such as one of the world’s top 10 most potential wine production areas and global wine tourism destinations, the winery has become an indispensable part of tourism in Ningxia.
The autonomous region has, therefore, accelerated the integrated development of wine and cultural tourism at the eastern foothills of Helan Mountain. It plans to build a number of wine-themed towns and smart vineyards, provide new tourism routes and increase the quality of related cultural and tourism products.
In September 2021, the first China (Ningxia) International Wine Culture and Tourism Expo were held in Yinchuan, capital of Ningxia. As the first State-level comprehensive exhibition of the industry, it has played a vital role in displaying the charms of Chinese wine culture, and the industry’s strength and development, officials said.
Through the expo, Ningxia has strengthened exchanges and cooperation with domestic and foreign wine production and marketing areas. It has also promoted the high-end, green and intelligent development of the wine industry, and consolidated the achievements of poverty alleviation and rural revitalization.
Ningxia has the largest contiguous wine grape plantation area in China. Covering 35,000 hectares, the area accounts for one-third of the nation’s total in that sector. It can annually produce 130 million bottles of wine, accounting for nearly 40 percent of the country’s total wine production.
Ningxia plans to build a national high-quality wine grape planting and breeding center. It has been optimizing its grapes’ quality by introducing 138 varieties from France, Italy, Georgia and the United States.
In the next five to 10 years, it will add 33,333 hectares of land to grow wine grapes.
Also, three-level breeding systems will be established and new varieties with independent intellectual property rights will be cultivated. More efforts will be made to build green, organic and high-standard vineyards. Modern technologies, such as blockchain and the internet of things, will be used to manage them.
As one of the first areas to grow grapes and make wine in China, Ningxia plans to tap cultural advantages of the wine industry and strengthen its contribution to boosting high-quality development.
It has created wine-themed festivals, music, movies and poems, and organized experts and enthusiasts in calligraphy, arts, photography, literature and other fields to show the unique charms of wine via their works.
To become a “wine capital of the world”, Ningxia has carried out six projects covering such fields as technology, brand building, industrial integrated development and e-commerce.
For example, the autonomous region has built a quality traceability and big data information platform to promote the digital transformation and upgrading of the industrial chain.
It has also developed Chinese evaluation models and classification standards of Ningxia wine.