[Explanation] Recently, Caoxian County, Heze, Shandong has exploded out of the circle.
What many people don't know is that the reason why this county at the junction of the four provinces is so popular is related to its strong strength in many subdivisions.
According to incomplete statistics, 90% of the coffins on the Japanese market come from Cao County, Shandong Province, China.
On May 23, the reporter went to Zhuangzhai Town, the most representative "coffin town" in Cao County, to find out.
[Explanation] As soon as the reporter walked into Zhuangzhai Town, he saw piles of paulownia boards neatly lined up on many open spaces, and the streets were full of archways of "wood companies" and "wood processing".
Relying on high-quality paulownia resources, many enterprises in the town make their fortunes by wood processing.
In a coffin manufacturing company that exports to Japan, the elegant and high-value cloth coffins and the delicate wooden coffins with delicate carvings are made by the skillful hands of the workers.
According to the company’s sales director Qin Xuehong, the Japanese will be cremated with the coffin after their death. This requires the coffin to be made of flammable and light materials, and the paulownia wood produced in Cao County has become the best choice.
[Concurrent] Qin Xuehong, Sales Director of Japanese Coffin Manufacturer, Zhuangzhai Town, Cao County
Paulownia is a kind of good performance (wood) in our board processing base, it is not easy to deform, and it is easy to process when processed, nails and everything are better, and the firmness is better.
The processing of coffins consumes about 400 cubic meters of paulownia boards per month, which is equivalent to 650 paulownia trees.
The number of coffins exported to Japan each year is about 300,000 sets, of which sarcophagus accounts for about 180,000 sets, and wooden coffins are about 120,000 sets.
[Explanation] Qin Xuehong said that the Japanese have very strict requirements on the quality of coffins, and more than 30 processes are required to make a coffin.
Since the coffins are all hand-made by the workers, the coffins are mostly made of plain colors. During processing, the workers' hands must be clean, and even the nails must be cleaned.
[Concurrent] Qin Xuehong, Sales Director of Japanese Coffin Manufacturer, Zhuangzhai Town, Cao County
Japanese customers are more serious and careful, and their requirements for product quality are very high.
For example, if there is a little peeling on the surface of our wooden coffin, for example, one millimeter or a few millimeters of peeling is not acceptable. We need to repair it again, that is, a leather we used for repairing and other original parts. The color of the leather should be exactly the same.
There is also a certificate for the selection of wood, and no excessive impurities can be produced after burning.
[Explanation] In Zhuangzhai Town, many export-oriented coffin production companies are scattered.
The reporter then visited a coffin production company that is mainly exported to Europe. The coffins produced by this company are mainly exported to Spain, Italy, France and other countries.
Different from the shape of the coffins exported to Japan, the coffins exported to Europe are mainly polygonal and oval, with large heads and small ends, and the surface of the coffins also needs to be painted.
According to Gu Anhua, the person in charge of the company, he had been doing a coffin processing business in Guangdong before and only moved the company to Cao County in 2016.
[Concurrent] Gu Anhua, Head of European Coffin Production Enterprise, Zhuangzhai Town, Cao County
Our company moved from Guangdong, and has always been in the Spanish market and the South African market in Guangdong.
(Selection) The main reason for Cao County is that Cao County is a paulownia production base, and the materials used for the coffins we make happen to be all paulownia mosaics, accounting for 98% (of the wood used).
We have opened up Italy, France, Romania (the market) here, and now Russia (the market) has been added.
Every year (coffins) are exported abroad, it looks like 25,000 to 30,000.
[Explanation] According to Guo Fengmin, Secretary of the Party Committee of Zhuangzhai Town, Cao County, Zhuangzhai Town is China's important wood-based panel production base and China's largest foreign exchange earning base for processing and export of paulownia wood. The export volume of paulownia products accounts for 70% of similar products in China.
(Reported by Yang Fei and Sun Hongyuan in Heze, Shandong)
Editor in charge: [Bian Liqun]