甜蜜生意经：红糖背后的“义乌故事”

提起浙江义乌，大家可能首先会想到它“世界小商品之都”的名号。

小到针头线脑、头饰纽扣，大到电器百货、家具陈设……义乌小商品市场汇集了上百万种产品，销往全球200多个国家和地区。

但也许很少有人知道，这一切都起源于一块小小的红糖。

走南闯北“鸡毛换糖”

义乌当地种植的青皮甘蔗，又被当地人称为“糖梗”

义乌本是一个以传统农业为主的地区，然而“七山二水一分田”，当地丘陵山地为主的地形导致耕地稀缺。与此同时，土壤还多为贫瘠的酸性土壤。

粮食类农作物难以在此大获丰收，反倒是被当地人称为“糖梗”的青皮甘蔗种植最为适宜。

义乌红糖，糖色嫩黄而略带青色，又名“义乌青”

这种甘蔗含糖量高，榨取之后得到的甘蔗汁可用于熬制红糖，这也促进了义乌红糖制作技艺的发展。

在生活物资匮缺的年代，红糖成了义乌人“以物易物”的主要产品。他们在农闲时期走街串巷，手里摇着拨浪鼓，用自家土产的红糖换别家的鸡毛。

收上来的好看的鸡毛被挑出来做成鸡毛掸子，继续叫卖换钱；不好的则被插在稻田里充当肥料。

过去义乌挑货郎挑着装满小百货的担子，摇着拨浪鼓，走街串巷“鸡毛换糖”

“百样生意挑两肩，一副糖担十八变，翻山过岭到处走，混过日子好过年。”

“鸡毛换糖”的传统也使得义乌出现了一批走南闯北的挑货郎。

上世纪六七十年代，挑货郎们的目的地从义乌本地发展到附近的东阳县、磐安县，再到安徽、江西等临近省份；肩上的货担也不再只有红糖，还出现了纽扣、梳子、缝衣针等小百货。

In a superheated factory mill in the eastern Chinese city of Yiwu, master craftsmen are stirring juice freshly squeezed from harvested sugarcanes. They undulate the long handle of the iron spoons in nine cauldrons, scanning for inconsistencies in the color and creaminess of the liquid. As water evaporates, thick, round bubbles appear while the liquid turns golden brown. The craftsmen then scoop the viscous brown syrup onto a wooden groove to let it cool off.

This is one of the first steps to making many sugar recipes and dessert sauces.

It's also part of a cherished technique for making brown sugar that dates back centuries in Yiwu, once a small impoverished town. Sugarcanes were one of the few major crops that could be grown on its hilly terrains in a humid climate. For generations, making brown sugar by hand and trading it for chicken feathers afforded locals a modest living. This practice, called "Feathers for Candy," was common for Yiwu locals when barter trading was the norm.

重塑“舌尖上的红糖味”

到了上世纪七十年代末期，义乌当地开始出现了群众们自发组织的露天小集市。挑货郎们换回的鸡毛可以在市场上售卖，他们也可以在集市上给自己的货担上货。这种露天小集市成为了义乌小商品市场的雏形。

1982年9月，义乌第一代小商品市场——湖清门小百货市场成立

改革开放为义乌小商品市场的发展注入“新活力”。1982年9月，义乌第一代小商品市场——湖清门小百货市场成立。1984年，义乌提出“兴商建县”的发展战略，义乌市场的发展驶上了“快车道”。

义乌小商品经济的繁荣发展，挑货郎们也纷纷转行做起了小商品生意。“鸡毛换糖”成为了“过去式”，义乌红糖制造业也逐渐没落。

The "Feathers for Candy" profession came to a lull as China opened its doors to the outside world and adopted a market economy. Making and trading handmade brown sugar gradually became a forgotten business, especially when Yiwu set up its first small commodity market in 1982.

Given business acumen, integrity and persistence deriving from the centuries-long "Feathers for Candy" tradition, Yiwu residents quickly built their fortune. Hordes of people from outside the province swarmed in, hoping to make a pile.

Yiwu quickly grew to be the world's largest market for small commodities at the turn of the 21st century. In the meantime, the handmade brown sugar industry declined. 

陈培亮是义乌一家红糖厂的老板。他的父亲陈文天过去就曾是一个挑着红糖走南闯北的挑货郎。到了陈培亮这一代，已经没有人做这个行当。

在外经商多年，陈培亮却越来越想念义乌红糖的味道。于是，陈培亮在2007年做出了一个决定——回义乌开红糖厂。

但他的决定遭到了父亲的反对，在父亲看来，再回义乌做红糖简直就是一件“吃力不讨好”的事。

正在加热中的甘蔗汁，在不断熬制下，甘蔗汁逐渐浓缩，最后晾干制成红糖成品

当时义乌红糖生产商很少，仅在义乌义亭村一带还有几个红糖厂；义乌红糖为纯手工熬制，产量有限，行业生产规范也不完善；义乌红糖知名度、销量也远远不如广西、广东生产的红糖。

为了恢复义乌红糖往日的“荣光”，陈培亮和他的同行们努力打破红糖业的困境，比如在保证红糖品质的同时提高产量；积极开发红糖麻花、生姜红糖、红糖酥饼等新产品。

为了让义乌红糖产业能够继续传承和发展，当地政府也出台了一些支持性的政策和措施。

2014年，义乌红糖制作技艺被列为国家级非物质文化遗产代表性项目；2017年，《义乌红糖》和《义乌红糖加工技术规程》两项团体标准发布，义乌红糖的生产工艺及产品质量得到进一步规范。

"In 2007 when I came back from Beijing, I discovered that no one is doing the business except a few villages in Yiting struggling to continue making brown sugar." Chen Peiliang, owner of a brown sugar factory, wanted to revive the industry: "It's the root of Yiwu people. The city prospered with handmade brown sugar."

But he encountered strong opposition from his father who thought the industry was dying. Chen Peiliang clung to his idea and built a brown sugar factory involving planting sugarcanes, pressing and boiling brown sugar and selling sugar products on the market.

"That was in 2008, our products unexpectedly became a big seller. Everyone is craving for a traditional flavor now that living standards have improved," Chen Peiliang said excitedly.

Besides nostalgia, making sugar by hand can retain the maximum nutrition compared with mass-produced industrial brown sugar. Experiment results show that the handmade brown sugar has a water content below 7 percent and various substances such as calcium, iron and potassium.

The Yiwu brown sugar handicraft was included in the list of China's national intangible cultural heritage in 2014.

“甜蜜生意经”的新发展

义乌生产的红糖产品——红糖麻花

义乌红糖和相关红糖产品的销售过去有一定的区域性，消费群体主要集中在江浙沪地区。

近年来随着电商产业蓬勃发展，义乌红糖生产商们也希望通过线上销售来扩大红糖销售范围。

去年，陈培亮把自家红糖生意交到了儿子陈万佳手中，希望学习电子商务专业的儿子可以进一步发展自家的红糖生意。“我自己是做传统生意起家的，电子商务确确实实有些力不从心，”陈培亮说道，“希望他（儿子）可以来发扬光大这个产业。”

陈万佳就读的义乌工商职业技术学院今年6月成立了直播电商学院。该校还受义乌市人社局的委托，开发了全国首个电商直播专项职业能力考核规范标准。

直播带货因而也成为了陈万佳“试水”自家红糖生意的一个主要方式。通过和同学合作的网络直播间，陈万家正在将自家的生产的红糖产品销往全国各地。

"The internet has ultimately changed people's consumer behavior, and brought our market online," Chen Peiliang said. His son, Chen Wanjia, is a sophomore studying e-commerce at Yiwu Industrial and Commercial College. Since Chen Peiliang isn't adept at selling online, he hopes that his son can bring the brown sugar business into the modern era. 

Yiwu has an advantage in making the leap to online selling thanks to its various sources of goods, complete supply chains, cheap and fast logistics services, as well as a surge of e-commerce service companies.

Chen Wanjia's college has been training e-commerce talent to cater to this economic transformation.

Chen's teacher Cao Qian has used his family business as a case study. "The pandemic gives a further boost to livestreaming sales. As making brown sugar by hand has a cultural connotation, we considering selling the products by livestreaming the sugar-making process in Chen's factory." Cao Qian talked about the plan with CGTN in Chen Wanjia's studio at the college.

Livestreaming selling, a new frontier of e-commerce which has been all the rage during the pandemic, helps cultivate consumer trust in certain products, Cao believes.

Before, all brown sugar products were sold offline, but now that proportion has shrunk to some 50 percent. Chen Peiliang's son is exploring how to further expand the business with e-commerce know-how, to sustain this national cultural heritage and carry forward the city's business philosophy. 

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