Standardized Fruit Cultivation Achieves Good Quality and a Good Reputation

Editor's note: Midsummer is approaching, and fruits of every color are eager to take the stage one after another. Strawberries are crisp and sweet, watermelons refreshing, and the mouth-watering large peaches have already begun to hit the market. At the same time, people are paying more and more attention to the quality and safety of fruit. Our newspaper's reporters went deep into fruit bases in Beijing, Shandong and other places to interview and reveal to everyone how delicious and safe fruit is produced.

Agricultural technicians assigned to villages, large specialized growers leading the way, production records brought into every household

Xintai cherries: standardization achieves a “good reputation”

On May 9, riding through the Culai Mountains in Tianbao Town, Xintai City, Shandong Province, one saw a lively scene of “red cherries covering the whole mountain, with visitors as numerous as at a temple fair.” “Today is the opening of Xintai's annual cherry festival, and we came specially to inspect Xintai cherries. Fellow traders in the cherry business all say that Tianbao Town's cherries have a fresh and delicious taste, a pleasant sweet-and-sour flavor, large fruit with small pits, and rich, mellow juice. Seeing them now, they truly live up to their name, and they are indeed outstanding!” In the “Diaoyutai Ancient Tree Picking Orchard” of large grower Zheng Chengshan, buyer Gai Jiangwen from Liaoning told reporters while tasting cherries.

Gai Jiangwen arrived in Xintai on May 6. After 4 days of inspection, he signed agency agreements with 3 cooperatives in Tianbao Town to act as an agent for Xintai cherries back in Liaoning.

“This is the effect brought by standardized production and branded operation.” said Zhao Wenpo, deputy mayor of Xintai City. “Xintai is the place of origin of Chinese cherries and has long been known as the 'first branch of fresh fruit north of the Yangtze.' Since 2006, in order to improve cherry quality and strengthen the cherry industry, Xintai has fully promoted standardized cherry production, and it has now entered its 10th year. At present, Xintai has developed 6 large cherry bases of more than 1,000 mu each, with a total area of more than 50,000 mu, bringing fruit growers more than 1 billion yuan in income each year.”

In Zheng Chengshan's ancient tree picking orchard, 6 ancient trees stood amid a crisscross of other large cherry trees and small cherry trees. Under the trees, several workers were patiently hand-sorting, boxing and labeling freshly picked large cherries…… “When they first came on the market a few days ago, one jin could sell for more than 50; now first-grade fruit can still sell for 30 yuan per jin.” Zheng Chengshan said.

Zheng Chengshan frankly said that standardized production made Xintai cherries what they are and brought fruit growers a great deal of income. Originally, Xintai cherries were mainly produced on the sheltered, sunny slopes of the Culai Mountains, an area with a beautiful environment and fertile soil, and were famous for “large fruit, small pits, and a sweet, fragrant taste.” However, around 2005, due to backward planting methods and chaotic sales channels, prices fell all the way, which hurt fruit growers' enthusiasm, and there were even cases of digging up trees and destroying orchards.

Starting in 2006, in order to protect the traditional Xintai cherry brand, Xintai implemented a “full-coverage standardized production project” centered on improving quality and efficiency, issued the "Tianbao Cherry Cultivation Technical Regulations," the "Tianbao Cherry Orchard Standardized Management Regulations" and others, improved the standard system for cherry production, and established a large cherry standardization demonstration zone.

Once the standards existed, how could fruit growers be persuaded to accept them? “Agricultural technicians assigned to villages, cooperatives or large specialized growers leading the way, and production records brought into every household” became the experience Xintai summarized in practice.

Qi Zaichun, Party branch secretary of Nianjiayu Village in Tianbao Town and chairman of the Nianjiayu Cherry Production Cooperative, explained that agricultural experts in the town turned the standardized production techniques for cherry planting, pruning, fertilizing and harvesting into easy-to-learn rhymes. The village set up a cooperative, took the lead in mobilizing large growers and science-and-technology demonstration households to join, and applied unified model management, unified technical guidance, unified supply of materials, unified standard harvesting, unified product purchasing and unified external sales to members' cherries. At the same time, the cooperative also mobilized a group of capable young people with ideas to specialize in contacting buyers from various places.

“A year later, the cooperative's cherries sold for several yuan more, and villagers who had originally been unwilling to join rushed to join. Moreover, as time went on, everyone developed an awareness of brand building, changing from the initial 'make me do it' to 'I want to do it,' and surrounding townships and villages were also quickly spurred into action.” Qi Zaichun said.

In this way, in less than three years, Xintai cherries achieved “one household, one outline, one bulletin, one regulation, one standard,” realizing full coverage of standardized production, providing a guarantee for quality and laying the foundation for brand marketing.

Standardized planting is the foundation, but branded operation is the key. Now, Xintai fruit growers no longer need to transport cherries from the mountains to outside them; instead, they can sell cherries to other places while sitting in the orchard. Zhang Weidong, who has grown cherries for more than 20 years, said happily: “At first we hauled them to the market to sell, later we sold to whoever came to buy, and now this year we already have next year's agreements signed.”

Deputy Mayor Zhao Wenpo frankly said: growing them is the foundation, but making them known is the key. For this reason, since 2011, Xintai has held a cherry festival every year in May and June, inviting experts, buyers and media from all over the country to attend, building a display stage for Xintai cherries and amplifying the brand effect of Xintai cherries.

At the same time, Xintai fully relies on the cherry brand to make the cherry industry bigger and stronger, enabling farmers to “get rich in diverse ways.” “First, develop off-season cherries to extend the cherry sales period; second, combine with rural tourism to turn self-picking sales into picking experiences; third, develop deep processing to extend the cherry industry chain.” Zhao Wenpo said.

Over the past three years, Xintai has built more than 500 winter-warm greenhouses for cherries, bringing cherries to market 3 months earlier; relying on the rich natural resources of the Culai Mountains and Liangfu Mountains, it registered and established the Tianbao Town Culai Mountain Rural Tourism Cooperative, developed cherry-picking tours and ecological agricultural sightseeing tours, and spurred tourism industries such as farm stays, picking orchards and holiday resorts; it established a cherry industry association, absorbing nearly 30 cherry cooperatives as association members, providing members with scientific and technological innovation, encouraging villagers to raise bees, brew cherry blossom honey, and process cherries into beverages, fruit wine, canned goods and more.

Since last year, online sales of Xintai cherries have become another new field. “Last year, we used Zheng Chengshan's cherry orchard as a demonstration site and sold 3 tons in total, and the price was also good.” said Li Yao, head of the online sales product department of Qinong Yunshang. “This year, we plan to further upgrade the packaging level and strive to complete a sales volume of 10 million jin.” (Our newspaper reporter Lu Bingbing, correspondent Wang Jing)