The local government in Hangzhou declared 2007 as the “brand establishment year” for the city’s silk industry, implementing strategies for innovation, brand promotion and marketing for the sector.

The silk industry employed over 600 silk enterprises and about 120,000 workers in 2007. The industry was worth around 30 billion yuan. Government subsidies to the industry totaled 20 million yuan in 2006.

A cocoon base for silkworms in Chun’an County, in Hangzhou city was completed in 2007, and will become major production center for the industry after about 1 billion square meters of mulberry trees, which silkworms live on, are grown by 2010.