NW China’s Xinjiang builds big business with expanding regional nang industry

Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has turned nang, a kind of crusty pancake and a staple food of local people, into a huge industry, which has been thriving all over the region. Xinjiang listed the nang sector as one of the top 10 industries to see better and stronger development during the 14th Five-year Plan period (2021-2025).

Workers make nang flatbread at a food industry park in Payzawat County, Kashgar, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Sept. 12, 2020. (Xinhua/Ma Kai)

Xinjiang has been promoting the high-quality development of its nang industry, making it an advantageous industry that helps increase the incomes of farmers and herdsmen living in the region.

Kashgar prefecture stands as a typical example of the development of Xinjiang’s nang industry. To promote the standardized development of the sector, Kashgar has set up a multi-level nang industrial system consisting of nang production bases, nang industrial parks, nang cooperatives and nang workshops. The prefecture has also developed a standardized management system for the nang industry to guarantee the sanitary conditions and quality of products. Thanks to such efforts, Kashgar now produces an average of more than 10 million nang per day.

Osman Memet is a nang baker at a nang industrial park in Kashgar city, Kashgar prefecture. In the past, Memet burned coal or firewood to bake nang in adobe nang pits. Nowadays Memet makes nang using an electric oven at the industrial park.

“The electric oven is environmentally-friendly and can guarantee the sanitary conditions and quality of products,” Memet said.

Before working at the industrial park, Memet had already made nang for more than 10 years in a village, earning a monthly salary of about 1,000 yuan (about $157). Now Memet earns a salary of more than 3,500 yuan a month at the industrial park.

Meanwhile, Xinjiang has realized the integrated development of the nang sector alongside its culture and tourism industries.

So far, the region has built 83 nang cultural industrial parks, where visitors can enjoy Xinjiang folk dance performances, a variety of nang products and other local foods.

At present, the development of the nang industry in Xinjiang has gradually realized the integration of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries, facilitating the development of agricultural and sideline products.

Xinjiang has also strengthened brand-building for its nang products. For example, Kashgar has established a unified management system for employees in the industry beyond Xinjiang and set up a nang industry association to help build a brand for the prefecture’s nang products.

So far, Kashgar has developed 36 nang brands covering 153 varieties of nang. Now the prefecture’s nang sells well across China and even in foreign countries. Recently, 300 boxes of nang from a nang industrial park in Kashgar’s Shule county were exported to Tajikistan in Central Asia.