A splendid view of Jin Suhong's Chinese toon farm in Lishui. [Photo/WeChat account: ls-mnews]

A Chinese toon farm in Dongyuan town – in Lishui city's Qingtian county, in East China's Zhejiang province – recently obtained export approval for a special kind of vegetable, becoming the first of its kind in the province.

The Chinese toon is a leafy vegetable with a distinctive aroma and flavor. Its leaves are widely used in Chinese cuisine and have various health benefits.

The farm, covering an area of about 60 mu (4 hectares), grows a special variety of Chinese toon that can be harvested all year round, with an estimated annual output of 6 metric tons.

Jin Suhong, the owner of the farm, said she received an order from a friend who runs a supermarket abroad after he saw a news report about her farm on television. She then started to handle the relevant procedures for exporting Chinese toon leaves.

Lishui Customs, on learning about this, arranged for staff to visit Jin's farm and guide her through the related approvals process.

The farm has now completed the formalities and Chinese toon leaves became the fourth category of agricultural products from Qingtian to be granted export approval, after mushrooms, rice and tea.

"Our first batch of Chinese toon leaves will be exported to Dubai, totaling 100 kilograms," Jin said. She added that orders from Singapore and Japan were also being negotiated.

Export approval for the Chinese toon is expected to further boost the exports of local agricultural products and promote the development of green agriculture in Qingtian county.