Qianxi county, in north China' s Hebei Province, is nationally renowned for its Chinese chestnuts, and is now extending its fame to southeast Asia with 150 chain stores selling stir-fried nuts.

The Chinese chestnut is popular among Chinese, who can buy them at street-side stalls.

Qianxi is located in the remote Yanshan Mountains, where 50,000 nut farmers have planted 23 million Chinese chestnut trees and the annual output is 15 million kilograms.

  The nuts have been exported to eight countries, including Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

The county sells 700,000 kilograms of nuts in the region, according to Yang Yuanjun, general manager of Tiancheng Food Company which is a contracted dealer responsible for overseas marketing.

The company entered the southeast Asian markets in 2002. They funded stir-fried chestnut shops in southeast Asian countries, and also directly exported unprocessed nuts.

 Peng Heqi, a 50 year old nut farmer, said: "Our Qianxi nuts sell well in southeast Asia and there are already 150 chain stores there. Knowing this good news, we are full of confidence to produce more chestnuts."

The local government has tried to increase nut farmers' incomes, but has been frustrated by fluctuating prices on the domestic market due to competition from other nut producers, according to Ji Chun, head of the county.

The government registered the trademark Qianxi Chestnut for a chain store operation.

 On the basis of retaining its market share in Japan, the traditional market of China chestnut producers like those from east China's Shandong province, the county managed to enter the southeast Asian market, Ji said.

Now the company, as Qianxi county's chestnut dealer, is the only Chinese chestnut supplier which runs stir-fried nut chain stores, the manager said.

According to Yang, through business in southeast Asia alone, Qianxi county's nut farmers will benefit from a total increase of 5 million yuan (602,000 US dollars) in their annual income.

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