Inner Mongolia: Taking Shangdu Vegetables to the International Market (Photos)
[Introduction·China Vegetable Network]At the 13th China International Agricultural Trade Fair held in Fuzhou this year, the “Xinxuan” celery of the Xinlei Vegetable Professional Cooperative in Shangdu County won the gold award for exhibited products, and at the same time, the “Xinxuan” brand potatoes were selected into the “National Hundred Cooperatives Hundred Agricultural Product Brands”, making this the only product in our city to receive this honor.
At the 13th China International Agricultural Trade Fair held in Fuzhou this year, the “Xinxuan” celery of the Xinlei Vegetable Professional Cooperative in Shangdu County won the gold award for exhibited products, and at the same time, the “Xinxuan” brand potatoes were selected into the “National Hundred Cooperatives Hundred Agricultural Product Brands”. This is the only product in our city to receive this honor, and these honors made Gu Shoujiang, head of the Xinlei Vegetable Professional Cooperative in Shangdu County, extremely excited.
When it comes to “Xinxuan” celery and the Xinlei Vegetable Professional Cooperative, Gu Shoujiang can talk about them with great familiarity. “Now our Xinlei Vegetable Professional Cooperative is developing better and better, and the vegetables we grow have been recognized by everyone. Winning these two awards is an honor for me, but also a challenge. From now on I will cherish this trust even more and grow better vegetables that satisfy consumers even more.”
Speaking of the original intention of establishing the cooperative, Gu Shoujiang was full of emotion. At that time, Gu Shoujiang was still an accountant in the county. On a trip to the countryside back to the village, he encountered farmers selling celery at a very low price, already lower than the cost of growing vegetables. Because the price was too low, many people in the village simply let the vegetables rot in the fields rather than harvest them. Seeing this, he was heartbroken, so he organized a team of 6 people in the village and hauled 40,000 jin of celery to Zhengzhou, Henan. Unexpectedly, these vegetables sold out in less than a day, and the price was more than double what they sold for locally. The experience of going to the market for the first time is still fresh in Gu Shoujiang's memory. After tasting the benefits, many young people in the village began going to markets to sell local vegetables. Seeing the business opportunity here, Gu Shoujiang organized people from three villages and established the Xinlei Vegetable Sales Department. Every year in July, they would go to various places to promote vegetables. As the scale of operations expanded, in 2010, on the basis of the sales department, Gu Shoujiang established the Xinlei Vegetable Professional Cooperative.
As the leader, Gu Shoujiang was determined to be market-oriented, aim to grow green vegetables, and lead the villagers to wealth together. The cooperative has 1,500 mu of demonstration land, all of which underwent farmland improvement, turning dry land into irrigated land. If farmers are willing to contract land, it is leased back to them at below-market prices. Farmers can also join the cooperative through land equity, with a free system for joining and withdrawing from the cooperative. Cooperative members enjoy priority access to wholesale prices for seeds and fertilizer, and there are technicians providing guidance throughout the whole process before planting, during planting, and after planting. The vegetables are sold to Zhengzhou, Xuzhou, Anhui, Beijing and other places. “Now we are engaged in large-scale planting. From planting area, seeds, planting techniques, fertilization, and product sales channels, everything follows his arrangements. This year, the highest price for one mu of celery can reach 10,000 yuan, and it sells especially well.” When cooperative members talk about the cooperative and about Gu Shoujiang, they are full of trust and pride. Because it was precisely under Gu Shoujiang's leadership that they explored a path of agricultural development integrating production, supply and marketing, and 540 member households increased their income by growing vegetables and now live lives like city people.
The Shangdu County Party Committee and government gave strong support to the Xinlei Vegetable Professional Cooperative, creating conditions for the cooperative as much as possible and promoting its healthy development. The 70-mu storage and processing base of the Xinlei Vegetable Professional Cooperative was provided free of charge by the county government. A Party member activity room was also built, and every year technicians from the Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Bureau are invited to teach cooperative members vegetable-growing techniques.
Speaking of the cooperative's future development, Gu Shoujiang was full of confidence. He said: “Our vegetables all use farmyard manure, and what we produce is all green food. At the same time, due to the influence of special natural conditions, the vegetables we grow are still very fresh even after being left for two or three days. With these advantages of favorable timing and location, next I plan to take Shangdu's vegetables to the international market and export them to Mongolia, Russia and other places. By then our ‘Xinxuan’ vegetables will certainly become more and more famous, and our income will also rise steadily like sesame flowers blooming higher and higher.”