Sika deer are raised in the Shuangyang district of Changchun city. [Photo/WeChat account of Changchun Wenlyu]

In recent years, Changchun – the capital city of Northeast China's Jilin province – has vigorously expanded its sika deer industry and widened the range of products from the sector, injecting new vitality into its development, according to local media reports.

Sika deer are not only raised for their meat, but their antlers are used in traditional Chinese medicine or TCM and in a variety of other uses.

In 2016, there were more than 12,000 deer-raising households in the Shuangyang district of Changchun, with 100,000 employees tending the deer.

But now the total number of deer in the region has reached 310,000 and the number of employees engaged in looking after them has reached 150,000. The annual production of deer antlers is about 500 metric tons, that of deer by-products is about 10,000 tons and the output value of the entire deer industry supply chain is 7 billion yuan ($972 million).

The 10,000-head deer breeding base in the district, currently under construction, plans to establish 30 sika deer farms and deer houses and purchase 5,000 more deer.

The project will also build a product processing plant, a bio-organic fertilizer production plant and a deer product production line.

Luxiang is a typical town built around the sika deer industry – integrating breeding, processing and sales. It is the largest distribution center for sika deer products in the country.

At present, there are 60 production and processing businesses involved in sika deer by-products in the town and 13 enterprises leading its agricultural industrialization.

More than 1,000 kinds of sika deer products in 10 categories have been developed and the development scale of the sika deer industry in the town has been further expanded.

Moving forwards, the town is striving to develop itself into the biggest intensive processing hub for sika deer products in the country.