Yunnan halved income tax on flower and tea cultivation
Yunnan's fresh cut flower production and sales have ranked first in the country for 15 consecutive years, among which "Dounan Flowers" has become the first well-known trademark in China's flower category, and currently flower trading accounts for about 80% of Yunnan's total flower trading volume. In order to vigorously develop advantageous biological industries, Yunnan Province has introduced measures to support industries such as flowers and tea in terms of taxation.
According to the blueprint for Yunnan Province's advantageous biological industry development plan, Yunnan is to be built into Asia's and even the world's largest flower production and export base, flower logistics center, flower market center, seedling and bulb breeding base and trading center, with a total output value of 14 billion yuan to be achieved by 2010. It also proposed that enterprises engaged in projects such as flowers and tea shall have their corporate income tax halved.
The Yunnan Province Biological Industry Development Conference opened recently, and the two documents just released by the provincial government were handed to each attending guest. One is the "Notice of the People's Government of Yunnan Province on Implementing the Plan to Accelerate the Development of Advantageous Biological Industries", and the other is the "Opinions of the People's Government of Yunnan Province on Accelerating the Development of Biological Industries". The two documents put forward the goals, strategic priorities and policy measures for the development of Yunnan Province's biological industry. They mention that 12 categories of advantageous biological industries should be highlighted for cultivation: tobacco, livestock products, vegetables, tea, tubers, biological medicines, sugar, flowers, woody oil crops, rubber, fruit, and wood and bamboo processing and pulp and paper. By 2012, the scale-based pattern of base construction for the 12 categories of advantageous biological industries including tobacco will have basically taken shape, with total output value exceeding 400 billion yuan.
In the flower industry, the Dounan Flower Wholesale Market rose against the headwind in the cold winter of the 2008 global financial crisis, with all lines showing gains. The trading volume of fresh cut flowers was 4.12 billion stems, and the trading value was 2.99 billion yuan, up 7% and 11% respectively compared with 2007. In addition, the trading volume of the Dounan Flower Auction Market exceeded 330 million stems, with a trading value of 162 million yuan. According to reports, since 2006, the sales volume and trading value of the Dounan Flower Market have firmly ranked first among flower markets nationwide, becoming a gold-rush destination for many flower industry practitioners and attracting nearly 450 flower enterprises and more than 1,000 merchants from across the country and even the world. At present, nearly 10,000 flower farmers and flower merchants enter the market for trading each day, and the flower trading volume accounts for about 80% of Yunnan's total flower trading volume. Some fresh cut flowers from surrounding provinces and regions such as Chongqing and Guiyang and surrounding countries such as Thailand and Vietnam also reach the whole country and even the world through the Dounan flower market.
According to Dounan Flowers Co., Ltd., the Kunming flower planting area will gradually shift to Yiliang, Shilin, Jinning, Songming and other places. Dounan Flowers Co. will strive to use 5-10 years to apply for listing by integrating resources, making "Dounan Flowers" the first flower stock in the country.
Yunnan's fresh cut flower production and sales have ranked first in the country for 15 consecutive years. In 2008, Yunnan's fresh cut flower output exceeded 5.29 billion stems, and total flower exports reached 101 million US dollars. Yunnan has become Asia's largest flower export base, forming two production-origin trading markets famous nationwide: the Dounan Flower Wholesale Market and the Kunming International Flower Auction and Trading Center, among which "Dounan Flowers" has become the first well-known trademark in China's flower category.
In order to make the flower industry bigger and stronger, the "Opinions" and the "Plan" specifically propose that Yunnan Province will form an industrial pattern led by fresh cut flowers, with ornamental seedlings, local specialty flowers, flower breeding and flower processing developing together. It will speed up the introduction and selective breeding of new flower varieties, the protection, development and utilization of wild flower resources, and cultivate a number of new specialty flower varieties with independent intellectual property rights. It will vigorously develop high-quality temperate fresh cut flowers such as roses and local specialty flowers such as orchids and camellias, and expand deep processing of flowers focusing on dried flowers, edible flowers and flower health products. By 2012, it will strive to increase the flower planting area from 345,000 mu in 2007 to 700,000 mu, achieve a new leap in the development of specialty flowers, and increase the industry's total output value from 8.4 billion yuan to 30 billion yuan.
In terms of taxation, support will be given to biological industries, such as "income from projects engaged in by enterprises in the cultivation of flowers, tea, silkworm cocoons, beverage crops and spice crops shall have corporate income tax halved; income from projects engaged in agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery that meet the conditions shall be exempt from corporate income tax.