Nanxiong sun-cured yellow tobacco is a cash crop, cultivated in dry land and planted in spring. Tobacco leaves become tobacco products after modulation (baking), which are raw materials for cigarette production and can also be directly smoked by a single cigarette. Tobacco leaves can be divided into three categories: flue-cured tobacco, sun-cured tobacco and oriental tobacco. Nanxiong sun-cured tobacco belongs to sun-cured tobacco. Because of Nanxiong's unique ecological conditions, unique semi-sun-curing processing technology, unique local characteristics and aroma, sun-cured tobacco leaves are the top grade of tobacco products, which are widely known in tobacco products and deeply loved by smokers in the south in history. With the development of China's cigarette industry, Nanxiong sun-cured yellow tobacco is more favored by the cigarette industry and is listed as one of the main varieties of sun-cured yellow tobacco in famous places in China.

Nanxiong Sun-cured Tobacco is also called Nanxiong Sun-cured Tobacco and Nanxiong Yellow Tobacco. Its planting history is long, and it has been nearly 400 years since it was introduced from southern Fujian in the early Qing Dynasty.

Nanxiong sun-cured yellow tobacco enjoys a good reputation at home and abroad for its golden color, rich fragrance, strong combustibility, white ash and moderate nicotine content. Before and after liberation, it was exported to 67 countries and regions in the world, and the main producing areas were concentrated along Nanxiong 323 National Road. From the mid-1950s to the early 1960s, 50,000-80,000 mu of sun-cured tobacco was planted, with an annual output of 6,000-9,000 tons and an annual export of 3,000-5,000 tons, with a historical peak of 9,000 tons (1982). Since 1980s, with the development of flue-cured tobacco in China, the market demand for sun-cured yellow tobacco has gradually decreased, and the planting area of sun-cured yellow tobacco in Nanxiong has also decreased year by year. Due to the Cultural Revolution, the export was interrupted, but by the middle and late 1990s (20th century), the annual planting area was stable at 30,000-50,000 mu. In recent ten years, the annual planting area is about 20,000 mu.

Due to the large-scale planting of Nanxiong tobacco leaves (sun-cured tobacco and flue-cured tobacco), the quality of tobacco leaves is good and the market is broad. Therefore, in 1996, Guangdong Nanxiong was named as "the hometown of yellow smoke in China" by the organizing committee of China naming publicity activities. At present, Nanxiong tobacco is the pillar industry of the local economy.