A farmer shows visitors a fat leech he is raising in Zhouzai community, Guangdong province. [Photo by Du Qiuqing/China Daily]

Farmers in a local community in Guangdong province are turning to raising leeches - commonly known as blood suckers - to earn more money.

What makes the leeches of interest is that they contain hirudin, a naturally occurring anticoagulant.

Du Qiuqing, Party chief of Zhouzai community in Guangning county, said leeches have very high medicinal value and raising them could help farmers escape poverty.

At the beginning of the year, Zhouzai community signed a five-year strategic agreement with a biomedical company to help the latter incubate and raise leeches.

The community officially started raising leeches in June in an area of about 80 square meters, Du said.

"The leeches that weighed only 3 grams in June have now grown to about 20 grams each, and the local farmers will get their dividends from raising the leeches by the end of the year," Du said.

Du said raising leeches has great potential, as China's demand for dried leeches in 2016 was more than 800 metric tons, but domestic farmers only could provide 300 tons.

"But the price of the imported hirudin is between 20 and 30 times more than the domestic ones," he said.

"The demand for leeches is also huge in Europe," Du said. "Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asian nations have also expanded their imports of leeches from China, and that has helped spur the price growth in recent years."

A local farmer surnamed Wen said he usually feeds the leeches once a day. A pond of leeches needs 5.5 to 6 kilograms of fresh pig blood.

"A pond of leeches could help local farmers earn from 50,000 to 60,000 yuan ($7,300 to $8,800) annually," he estimated.

Located in western Guangdong, the Zhouzai community, with about 5,000 farmers, is known as a poor village in the province.

A technician surnamed Wang from a leech-raising company in Jiangsu province said raising leeches requires good quality water and sufficient microorganisms.

"The leeches in my farms like to eat river snails and freshwater mussels," he said.

Wang also predicted that raising leeches has rosy market prospects and the profits are considerable, as only a few farmers are now raising leeches on the mainland.

"Many dried leeches have been purchased by relevant companies directly from farmers before they arrive in local medicinal material markets," Wang added.