Spicy fries help win poverty battle
Print Edition
Villagers in the Shizhu Tujia Autonomous County of southwest China鈥檚 Chongqing City share a slightly different delicacy from the rest of the country 鈥 potato chips coated with spicy paprika.
Chen Jing, a 30-something woman from the Tujia ethnic minority, grew up eating the homemade potato chips.
She now runs a family business of mass producing the snacks.
鈥淲hat we sell under the brand of Shihaojia tastes just like before, in fact much healthier with a longer shelf life,鈥 said Chen.
Shizhu Tujia Autonomous County, tucked away in steep mountains and mired in abject penury, barely grows anything else but potatoes.
With over 70 percent of its population belonging to the Tujia ethnic minority, its people had long fed themselves on potatoes.
鈥淧otatoes were our staple food and cost very little, with hardly any economic benefits. It used to cost less than a quarter of a dollar for every 500 grams of potatoes in the local market,鈥 Chen recalled.
But, the Tujia people know how to master the knack for relishing life. Slices of deep-fried potatoes when showered with enticing red chili, can spice up a mundane dinner plate.
Chen鈥檚 parents sniffed an opportunity in the Tujia people鈥檚 old way of making crispy potato chips.
In 2005, they perfected the cooking techniques and set up a food processing plant under the auspices of the local government.
Grown at an elevation of 800 meters, potatoes in Shizhu are no longer a mere local specialty, but an Internet sensation.
Seasoned with red chili and Sichuan pepper, the crunchy chips make mouths water.
And they notch up more than 19 million yuan (US$3 million) through online sales every year.
The original 100-square-meter workshop has also been upgraded into a modern factory covering more than 700 square meters thanks to the lucrative business.
The factory currently has 12 employees, mainly people from the local Tujia community.
They can earn more than 100 yuan a day.
According to the statistics from the county鈥檚 commerce commission, the sales of local specialty products under the 鈥減overty alleviation through consumption initiative鈥 exceeded 120 million yuan in 2020, helping many villages shake off destitution in China鈥檚 battle against extreme poverty.
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