At dawn, the 10,000-mu (approximately 667 hectares) Torreya grandis forest in Zhaojia Town, Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province, was still shrouded in a thin mist, but 65-year-old Torreya grandis farmer Uncle Xuan had already begun his day's work. "This Torreya grandis tree was planted by my great-great-grandfather, and it has protected our family for five generations." He gently stroked the rough trunk, his eyes sparkling with hope.
Thirty kilometers away in Shaoxing, Master Chen, an inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage of Shaoxing rice wine brewing, opened a jar of aged Shaoxing rice wine, and the rich aroma instantly filled the entire workshop. "This jar of wine has been dormant for a full 10 years," he murmured.
Torreya grandis and Shaoxing wine, these two millennia-old industries nurtured by mountains and rivers, are now blossoming anew under the financial support of Zhejiang Chouzhou Commercial Bank (hereinafter referred to as "Chouzhou Bank").
The Chinese torreya, known as the "precious fruit of a thousand years," takes 15 years from seedling to fruiting and 20 years to reach its peak production. This long cycle deters many torreya farmers. "The initial investment for one mu (approximately 0.16 acres) of torreya forest is over 10,000 yuan, and the annual maintenance costs tens of thousands of yuan," Uncle Xuan's account book reveals the pain point. "Many farmers are overwhelmed by financial pressure before the fruit trees even bear fruit."
As the origin and main production area of Chinese torreya, Zhaojia Town has 37,000 century-old torreya trees and 2,700 millennium-old torreya trees. Its 35,000 mu of planting area accounts for more than 60% of the national annual output. It is a globally important agricultural cultural heritage site. Nearly 10,000 torreya farmers rely on this "cash cow" for their livelihood. However, problems such as long growth cycle, low added value, and backward deep processing have always restricted its development.
The turning point came last spring when the "Flamingo Financial Service Team" of Shaoxing Branch of Chouzhou Bank traversed mountains and valleys, spending three months visiting every village in Zhaojia Town to conduct door-to-door assessments and grant credit. "Sometimes, to grant credit to a single flamingo farmer, we had to hike for two hours on mountain roads," the head of the bank's Rural Revitalization Department told the Financial Times reporter.
This seemingly "clumsy" approach yielded unexpected results. Through preliminary door-to-door surveys and a subsequent intelligent online "whole-village credit granting" model, Chouzhou Bank tailored "Torreya Farmer Loans" for Torreya farmers, focusing on supporting ancient tree protection, the purchase of industrial automation equipment, the upgrading of deep processing technologies, and brand building.
Today, more than 4,000 households of Torreya farmers in 10 villages in Zhaojia Town have received credit lines exceeding 40 million yuan. The convenience of "scanning a code to fill in information and receiving funds instantly" has allowed the timely benefits of inclusive finance to reach the fields.
Like torreya nuts, Shaoxing rice wine is also an "art of time," with a fine wine requiring ten years of aging. Following the ancient method of making wine yeast in summer, wheat koji in autumn, starting brewing at the beginning of winter, and pressing wine at the beginning of spring, rice wine has not only become a "golden name card" of Shaoxing's distinctive industry, but has also been listed as a national intangible cultural heritage.
However, the financial pressure brought about by the long aging cycle also plagues the industry's development. Taijiu Winery, a long-established yellow rice wine enterprise in Keqiao Lanting, has a history of nearly 30 years. After inheriting the family business, Chen Kai, who "inherited the family business," has been trying to upgrade the intelligent production line, improve warehousing and logistics, and expand online channels. However, the winery's most valuable fermentation jars cannot be used as traditional collateral, and the funding gap has stumped him.
The arrival of Chouzhou Bank broke the deadlock. Relying on the national platform for sharing the credit information of small and micro enterprises' cash flow, Chouzhou Bank analyzed the winery's stable settlement records with upstream suppliers and the payment flow of downstream distributors. Combined with data such as tax payments and utility bills, it built a precise "data profile" for the enterprise. Based on this, Chouzhou Bank provided a credit line of 4 million yuan to help the winery complete its intelligent transformation and achieve standardized production, preserving both traditional flavor and ensuring stable quality.
“I never imagined that data would become our most valuable asset.” Chen Kai’s sentiments expressed the feelings of the new generation of inheritors. “We must not only preserve the craftsmanship of our ancestors, but also let it shine with new brilliance in the new era.”
Since the platform was launched in July 2025, Chouzhou Bank has built "data profiles" for more than 100 enterprises, solving the problem of information asymmetry.
From torreya forests to wineries, from "whole-village credit granting" to "data-driven credit granting," Chouzhou Bank uses precise financial services to revitalize the two millennia-old industries of torreya nuts and rice wine in the new era.
