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Why did local cocoon production in Zhejiang decline around the year 2000?
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Zhejiang
Dashan (“Great Mercy”) Pagoda, Shaoxing, Zhejiang province, China.
Around the year 2000, local cocoon production in Zhejiang began to decline primarily due to two economic factors: rising labor costs and lower market prices for raw silk.1
While the province has a long and storied history of sericulture—particularly in the Lake Tai plain—these shifting economic conditions made the traditional practice less viable for producers at that time.1