North China's Shanxi province is known as the kingdom of small grains and a high-quality grain and fruit belt. It boasts unique natural resource advantages in developing the functional food industry.

In 2018, Shanxi formulated the "Shanxi Province Functional Food Industry Development Plan." Two years later, the province selected the functional food industry cluster as one of 10 farm produce intensive processing industrial clusters to be further developed.

The functional food industry cluster's development relies on abundant grains, fresh and dried fruits and traditional Chinese medicinal materials grown in Shanxi. 

The province will develop industrial clusters for functional edible oil products in its northwestern region, industrial clusters for functional miscellaneous grain products in its northern region, industrial groups for mineral foods in the southeastern region and industrial clusters for fruit woods in its western part. 

The province planned to build 100 functional agricultural product brands in five years starting in 2017. It has so far selected and promoted 80 active agricultural product brands.

Leading enterprises in Shanxi have developed more than 40 series and hundreds of functional food brands using functional agricultural products as raw materials. 

In 2020, the output value of the functional food industry in the province reached 3 billion yuan ($461.21 million). The planting area of functional agricultural products exceeded 4,666 square kilometers, increasing the incomes of more than 400,000 farmers.

The province aims to cultivate 20 key functional food companies and 30 functional food brands, own 100 certified organic functional food products and generate more than 9 billion yuan in the annual output value of the functional food industry by the end of 2025.