Chalk Village Sustains Growth Through E-commerce and Innovation

A woman dries chalk in Liuyuan Village, Huangtan Township, Yingcheng County-level City, Xiaogan Prefecture-level City, Hubei Province.

Known as the “gypsum capital of China”, Yingcheng City, Hubei Province, has the highest-quality gypsum and the second largest reserves of the soft sulfate mineral in the world.

Several generations of inhabitants of a village in Yingcheng’s Huangtan Township known as Liuyuan have sustained themselves by making chalk out of the local gypsum deposits over the last 70-plus years. The hamlet produces 80% of the chalk in China and over 230 of its 365 households are engaged in chalk production and sales at present.

In the past, Liuyuan’s residents made their products by hand and sold them in the surrounding region, however. Production was mechanised over the years, but the village continued to rely on nearby areas for sales until their chalk markets became saturated around the turn of the 21st century, which made it necessary to explore other markets.

A local who was born in the 1980s named Liu Xiaofeng began working at a large Chinese internet company in the southern metropolis of Shenzhen after studying business administration with a focus on computer applications in university. He became more familiar with Liuyuan’s chalk industry and the challenges that it was experiencing while visiting during the Spring Festival holiday period in January and February of 2006 and sensed an opportunity to help it modernise and boost sales. Liu ultimately decided to quit his job and started a chalk business after moving back to his hometown that May.

In the beginning, the hardworking entrepreneur spent 20 hours a day promoting Liuyuan’s brand and products after launching a website and a store on e-commerce platform Alibaba.com. Liu communicated with many potential customers and sent them samples but did not generate any sales at first. His efforts were not in vain, however, as he finally received an order worth 100,000 yuan from a Chinese education bureau in another province about a month later and one from outside China for more than 300,000 pieces of egg-shaped chalk for Easter soon after.

Liu was encouraged by the interest that the company was receiving and began engaging in sales and marketing on more platforms. Liuyuan’s products gradually became well-known internationally and are exported to more than 200 countries and purchased by clients such as the United Nations and Walmart at present.

The village’s booming chalk business stimulated the development of related industries in the area as well, such as mould production, carton manufacturing, internationally certified packaging manufacturing, printing, and logistics, which in turn strengthened the chalk industry as a complete industrial chain emerged.

A Liuyuan resident organises boxes of coloured chalk in the village.

It is said that Yingcheng’s gypsum can be mined for over 200 more years. Demand for traditional chalk has been decreasing in recent years, however, as the world embraces modern technologies and Chinese classrooms go digital. With an eye on the long term, Liuyuan’s residents have been anticipating the situation and engaging in innovation in order to remain relevant though. More than 300 different chalk products that are widely used in education, entertainment, and other areas, such as dust-free, environmentally friendly chalk, washable glow-in-the-dark chalk, liquid grip chalk, hair-dyeing chalk, insecticidal chalk, and toy chalk products, are currently produced in the village as part of its strategy for the future.

Enjoying the fruits of the transformation that has occurred, Liuyuan was able to sell 5 million boxes of chalk with output value of over 100 million yuan in 2020 alone and continues to vitalise and become more prosperous.

For more information, please contact WFP China COE (wfpcn.coe@wfp.org)