In Xuwen County, Zhanjiang, at the southern tip of the Chinese mainland, a fragrant herb from Southeast Asia is undergoing an industrial transformation.
Pandan (Pandanus amaryllifolius), known as the "vanilla of the East," is a staple of Indonesian, Malaysian, and Singaporean cuisine—essential to pandan chiffon cake, nasi lemak, and countless desserts. It was introduced to southern China by returning overseas Chinese from Indonesia and has been grown in household gardens for generations.
Now, in Xuwen—one of the earliest departure ports of the Maritime Silk Road in the Han Dynasty—pandan is moving from scattered backyard cultivation to industrial-scale production.
In early June, a microwave-drying processing line began large-scale operations at a more than 500-mu (about 33-hectare) pandan plantation in He'an Town. Fresh leaves were sorted, washed, chopped, and dehydrated within minutes, helping preserve their signature aromatic compounds. This has ended the previous model of planting raw crops with no further processing, in which farmers could only sell raw leaves at low prices.
The dried leaves are then sent to Guangzhou Flower Flavours & Fragrances Co., Ltd., where a joint laboratory is developing pandan extract, freeze-dried powder, and other value-added products for baking, tea drinks, and personal care.
From the Maritime Silk Road to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area supply chain, this Southeast Asian herb is writing a new chapter in county-level agricultural upgrading on China's red soil.
Author: Chen Mingwei
Photo: Luo Xin
