In south China, silkworm farmers reel from deadly floods

Pipe in hand, 40-year-old Zhu Huangyi cleans up a little concrete space when home to his silkworms, 2 thirds of which were lost in fatal floods striking southern China today.

Simply 2 hours from the financial powerhouse and megacity of Guangzhou, surrounded by lavish subtropical greenery, lies the town of Sancun, among the worst struck by the current bad weather condition.

Around a quarter of homes in the town make their living from raising silkwormsbugs that produce valuable fibers vital to the fabric market.

The water levels had actually stopped by the time AFP showed up, it reached 2 meters in some locations– with ravaging repercussions for locals and the small animals.

“We positioned the worms high up however that wasn’t enough,” Zhu Huangyi informed AFP, holding up a mobile phone revealing pictures of his cocoons drifting unfortunately on the surface area of the water.

“It harms my heart,” he stated.

“It’s an old household service, my mom entered into this 30 years earlier,” states the breeder, whose residential or commercial property was likewise flooded in 2022.

Behind him, his mom Huang Xiuying spreads white cleaning agent powder on the concrete flooring of the enclosures to decontaminate the location.

“We continued to feed our worms, even after getting the weather condition alert,” she states.

“We could not pertain to grips with truth,” she discusses.

Breeders offer their worms in their cocoon state, when they are most important, for around 40 to 50 yuan for a kilo ($5.50 to $7).

Zhu had the ability to conserve a 3rd of them.

“After the flood, costs fell,” he states.

“We had the ability to offer those that stayed at 34 yuan a kilo.”

That was their only method to suppress their losses– like numerous in the town, he had no insurance coverage.

“Basically, it will cost us 40,000 to 50,000 yuan in losses,” he describes– a substantial quantity in rural China.

I lost all my cocoons’

Contributing to the discomfort is the loss in the floods of the town’s mulberry trees, the silkworms’ only source of food.

“The other issue is our mulberry trees,” Zhu stated.

The only option is to cut the heads of the plants when the water level go back to regular, then wait about 2 weeks for functional leaves to grow back.

Just after that will farmers have the ability to purchase brand-new silkworm eggs to renew their reproducing stock, which Zhu quotes will cost 5,000 yuan.

Another breeder Lan Zhukui is even less lucky.

“I lost all my cocoons, around 150 kilos of them” with a market price of around 6,000 yuan, he discusses to AFP as he cleans up the flooring of his enclosure.

“There’s very little to do at the minute other than wait in your home.”

At her breeding station, Huang is more philosophical.

“We’re utilized to it!” she states. “Before, we were flooded every 8 to 10 years. Now it’s more like every 2 years.”

© 2024 AFP