Peppers a hot commodity in Hunan

As a province famous for spicy food, a person from Hunan consumes about 50 kilograms of peppers every year, with the total yearly demand reaching millions of metric tons, according to local government figures.

The province is home to more than 1,000 pepper processing enterprises, with five of them achieving annual sales revenue of more than 1 billion yuan ($138 million).

Among the different types of peppers, the Zhangshugang pepper has won the nickname "Hermes pepper "for being rare and expensive, like the French luxury handbag brand.