The Development of Yuxi City

Early on, the owner of Chu Chen relied on a policy that resembled an informal agreement with farmers to purchase tobacco leaves at 30 RMB per pound, which drove over 70,000 farming households into cultivation and boosted Yuxi’s tobacco industry. Although tobacco is strictly regulated, output remains substantial. Quickly, agile entrepreneurs moved into packaging, secured orders, then pivoted to R&D in new energy battery packaging. Riding the wave of new energy expansion, they became suppliers to CATL; within five years their valuation surpassed 10 billion RMB. They later discovered lithium deposits, and the new energy sector is projected to exceed 350 billion RMB.

A Tier-4 City Makes a Successful Comeback: From Tobacco to New Energy, It Produces a Richest Man