Pepper stands as one of Hainan’s most distinctive tropical cash crops. The province boasts a pepper planting area of approximately 320,000 mu and an annual output of nearly 40,000 tons, accounting for over 90% of China’s total planting area and output, with an annual industrial output value exceeding RMB 3 billion. With a pepper cultivation history of around 70 years in Hainan, the industry has grown into a major tropical crop sector supporting the livelihoods of more than 100,000 local farming households. As one of the core producing areas for Hainan pepper, Chongxing Town in Wenchang City has a total pepper planting area of about 21,400 mu, yielding 3,210 tons of dried pepper annually. Renowned for its large plump grains, pure white color and pungent flavor, Chongxing pepper enjoys a solid market reputation. Rooted in core producing areas including Chongxing Town, Hainan Yingtian Ark Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd. integrates technological concepts into the entire pepper industrial chain from field cultivation to finished products, striving to make every grain of Hainan pepper a benchmark of premium quality.
Technological Cultivation: Strict Quality Control from the Source
Technology serves as the primary driving force for the quality upgrading of Hainan’s pepper industry. In recent years, the intelligent integrated water and fertilizer management system and green pest and disease prevention and control technologies developed by the Spice and Beverage Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences have been widely promoted in Hainan’s major pepper-producing regions. Applied at the planting base in Dalu Town, Qionghai, the integrated water, fertilizer and pesticide technology has boosted the average fresh pepper yield per plant to 14.22 kilograms, a 47.51% increase compared with traditional planting methods. Meanwhile, it reduces fertilizer consumption by 50%, water consumption by 38.5%, and eliminates pesticide usage entirely. Currently, the average yield of white pepper in Hainan’s major producing areas is merely 0.75 to 1 kilogram per plant, while this innovative technology doubles the yield to achieve high and stable production.
In terms of planting innovation, the mechanized wide-narrow row pepper cultivation technology has been included in Hainan’s officially promoted agricultural technologies. Adopting a planting pattern of wide rows within ridges and narrow rows between ridges, this technology creates convenient conditions for mechanized farming and effectively solves the long-standing industry dilemma of “sufficient planters but insufficient field management”. The mechanized cultivation model developed by pepper industry researchers cuts labor costs by 36% and improves operational efficiency by more than 10 times compared with manual work. Keeping pace with technological planting trends, Yingtian Ark leverages the advantage of volcanic red soil in Chongxing Town, Wenchang, and collaborates with experts from the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences to implement standardized planting technologies. It applies technological interventions throughout the whole process from seedling selection and breeding to field management, ensuring stable and controllable raw material quality. Endowed with a tropical climate, Hainan features strong photosynthesis and vigorous crop growth, resulting in relatively higher piperine content in local pepper. This irreplicable natural advantage forms the fundamental foundation of Yingtian Ark’s strict quality control system.
Technological Processing: Transforming Traditional Manufacturing into Refined Production
While technological cultivation optimizes pepper growth, advanced processing technologies elevate pepper quality and product value.
Traditionally, local farmers process white pepper through static water soaking and manual peeling. The 6-to-10-day soaking process is labor-intensive and time-consuming, generates large volumes of polluting wastewater, and causes microbial contamination that compromises pepper quality. Today, modern mechanical peeling technology revolutionizes the traditional process. Adopting the core techniques of physical peeling and instant cleaning, fresh pepper can be directly processed in workshops immediately after harvesting, with the whole procedure from fresh picking to finished products completed in just half an hour. The pepper processing innovation team of Hainan Academy of Agricultural Sciences has obtained multiple invention patents, continuously driving the mechanization and intelligent upgrading of the local pepper processing industry.
Although Yingtian Ark currently adopts manual sorting and packaging for finished products, the company always benchmarks itself against top industrial standards. It implements stringent quality control procedures covering every link from pepper harvesting in core producing areas of Chongxing Town, Wenchang, to grain sorting, grading and packaging. Only plump, glossy pepper grains proceed to subsequent processing, while impurities and defective grains are strictly eliminated. All products are naturally sun-dried without sulfur fumigation, ensuring rich aroma, moderate spiciness and a mellow aftertaste for every pepper grain. Such rigorous pursuit of quality has earned Yingtian Ark’s pepper products widespread recognition and favorable consumer reputation.
Technological Branding: Taking Hainan Pepper to the World
Brand building is the core driver of premium pricing and industrial value enhancement for agricultural products. The upcoming Three-Year Action Plan for the Full Industrial Chain Development of Hainan Pepper (2025–2027) further clarifies the development principle of “brand leadership, processing dominance, technological support and integrated development”.
Hainan has achieved remarkable breakthroughs in pepper brand development. In May 2026, the “Dapo Pepper” geographical indication certification trademark successfully completed intellectual property customs protection filing with the General Administration of Customs, becoming Hainan’s first geographical indication trademark eligible for national customs intellectual property protection. It has been listed in the first batch of key guidance directories for geographical indication promotion by the National Intellectual Property Administration, recognized as an excellent national trademark brand construction case, and included in the Belt and Road Geographical Indication Brand Promotion List. At the 6th China International Consumer Goods Expo held in April 2026, pepper was newly added to the product portfolio of the “Hainan Fresh Products” public brand. Alongside classic local specialties such as sweet pineapples, aromatic Hainan pepper showcases the unique charm of Hainan’s premium agricultural products to global markets.
Hainan launched a three-year (2026–2028) upgrading initiative for its “Hainan Fresh Products” agricultural brand, with 2026 designated as the year for standard system development, making brand internationalization a core development goal. Aligning with the “Hainan Fresh Products” brand upgrading strategy, Yingtian Ark is actively advancing brand certification and standardized system construction, committed to bringing high-quality Hainan pepper out of the island, across China and onto the global market.
From the volcanic red soil of Chongxing Town in Wenchang and refined manual grain selection to technologically empowered field cultivation and standardized brand operation, Yingtian Ark leverages technology as the core engine and quality as the fundamental cornerstone. By deeply cultivating the niche yet high-quality tropical specialty agricultural track, the company continuously contributes to the high-quality development of Hainan’s pepper industry.