Pink GDP: Flower economy blossoms into better lives

Shiliuyun-Xinjiang Daily (Reporter Rayda) news: In May, Yutian County is awash in pink, and the very air is sweet with the scent of roses.

By 10 a.m. on May 16, 2026, a spontaneously formed rose trading market in Yetaikezile Village, Arele Township, Yutian County, was already buzzing with activity. Tricycles rolled in one after another, their beds piled high with sacks of rose buds and fresh petals. The din of weighing, unloading and haggling mingled with the heady fragrance of roses, bringing vibrant life to this township on the edge of the desert.

Among the crowd, Maituoheti Aximu, a buyer from Urumqi, squatted on the ground, pulling stacks of 100-yuan notes from his shoulder bag. Flower growers swarmed around him — some calling out weights, others helping unload sacks. Maituoheti has been doing business in Yutian for 23 years. He used to trade in cistanche, a desert herb, but in recent years he has set his sights on roses.

Photo taken around 10 a.m. on May 16, 2026 shows a spontaneously formed rose trading market bustles with activity in Yetaikezile Village, Arele Township, Yutian County, Hotan Prefecture, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Photo by Zhang Yun)

"I brought 150,000 yuan (about 22,050 U.S. dollars) in cash. I arrived before 10 and I'm almost out already," he said, patting his bag, now more than half empty. He glanced at his phone. "By noon, the money will be gone." Since the blooming season began, Maituoheti has purchased 50 tonnes of roses, spending over 2 million yuan (about 294,000 U.S. dollars).

Before he could finish, another tricycle sputtered up. Grower Maitikurban Maitituohti climbed down and began unloading sacks onto the scale, one by one — 60 kilograms of buds at 40 yuan per kilogram. That trip netted him 2,400 yuan (about 352.8 U.S. dollars). He called it "wages from the flower fields" — paid daily, in cash.

Photo taken on May 16, 2026 shows buyer Maituoheti Aximu (left) makes an on-site payment to a rose grower at the rose trading market in Yetaikezile Village, Arele Township, Yutian County, Hotan Prefecture, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Photo by Zhang Yun)

"You have to pick buds early. First thing in the morning it's 40 yuan a kilo; a little later it drops to 37," Maitikurban said, already turning his tricycle around. "There's more in the fields. I need to make three trips today."

Maitikurban's family farms 15 mu (about 1 hectares) of roses in Wanfang Village, Arele Township. Every May, during peak bloom, the whole family is in the fields before 6 a.m., plucking buds and flowers one by one while the morning dew is still on the petals.

"Fresh flowers are cheaper — 20 yuan a kilo before 10, then 18 after," he said. Over the past few years, he has watched prices climb steadily. "A few years ago it was just 10 or 12 yuan a kilo. Last year the highest was 16. This year it jumped straight to 20." Last year, he earned 50,000 to 60,000 yuan (about 7,350 to 8,820 U.S. dollars) from flowers alone, and with other income, his family's annual earnings topped 100,000 yuan (about 14,700 U.S. dollars).

That figure — over 100,000 yuan — kept the corners of Maitikurban's mouth turned upward as he uttered.

Flower farmers work hard in the fields, while cooperatives run full steam in processing workshops.

At the workshop of the Yutian County Flower Growers' Specialty Agriculture Development Cooperative in Yetaikezile Village, dozens of trays were lined up in rows. Women workers turned and aired rose buds, and the whole yard was thick with an intoxicating rose fragrance.

Abliz Musa, the cooperative's head, founded it in September 2020. "We started with just five mu, doing wholesale and packaging," he recalled. More than four years later, the cooperative's sales reached 4 million yuan (about 588,000 U.S. dollars) last year, and it has developed 120 products.

Also in Arele Township, the Hexie Desert Rose Planting Cooperative has carved out its own success. Its head, Rukiyam Wujiabula, a university graduate who returned home to grow roses with her father, now oversees 42 employees and generates annual sales of 7 million yuan (about 1.03 million U.S. dollars). The cooperative cultivates roses on 3,000 mu (about 200 hectares) and buys fresh flowers from local growers as well. "However much the locals grow, we buy it all," Rukiyam said.

Pink flows from the fields to the workshops, with value added at every link in the chain. And it is deep processing by leading enterprises that has truly multiplied the flower's worth. Yutian County now has five rose processing enterprises and cooperatives, and a nascent industrial cluster is taking shape.

At Xinjiang Yutian Guimi Biotechnology Co., Ltd., a state-owned enterprise, the rose has been reimagined. The company has extended a single flower's journey to its furthest reach: 22 cosmetics products — from facial essence oils and rose soap to hand cream — deliver fragrance to the skin; eight food products — from rose jam and rose cakes to rose-flavored naan — bring sweetness to the tongue.

From field to workshop, from cooperative to leading enterprise, a complete rose industry chain has taken root in Yutian County. And the foundation for it all lies in the land beneath their feet.

Wu Kaiyun, a member of the Party Leadership Group and deputy director of the Yutian County Forestry and Grassland Bureau, told the reporter that by the end of 2025, the county's rose cultivation area had reached 80,000 mu (about 5,333.33 hectares), with an annual output of 11,400 tonnes and an output value of 237 million yuan (about 34.84 million U.S. dollars). The industry directly lifts 5,441 households and 15,764 people out of poverty.

"These 80,000 mu of flowers are the desert's 'pink GDP,'" Wu said. Pink is the color of the flowers; GDP is their economic value. Sand control and prosperity have converged in this single bloom.

Yutian sits on the southern edge of the Taklimakan Desert, long battered by sandstorms and severe land desertification. Desert rose roots penetrate several meters underground, gripping the sand firmly, while their lush branches and leaves effectively reduce wind erosion. One mu of roses is a windbreak; 80,000 mu is an ecological shield.

Even more remarkable, roses grown in wind and sand yield far more oil than ordinary varieties, and their petals contain more than 300 aromatic compounds.

In 2026, Yutian plans to add 5,000 mu of rose cultivation, bringing the total to 85,000 mu. That means another 5,000 mu of pink barrier on the southern edge of the Taklimakan Desert — and more growers like Maitikurban joining the ranks of those earning "wages from the flower fields."

Standing amid the rose fields, Wu Kaiyun summed it up in one sentence: "The flowers have bloomed, the sandstorms have eased, and the pockets have bulged."

(A written permission shall be obtained for reprinting, excerpting, copying and mirroring of the contents published on this website. Unauthorized aforementioned act shall be deemed an infringement, of which the actor shall be held accountable under the law.)