How Cooperatives Can Join Forces to Grow Big and Strong

Editor's Note

“A single thread cannot make a cord, and a single tree cannot make a forest.” Farmers have joined together to form specialized cooperatives, but in the face of a ever-changing market, a single cooperative with only a small amount of resources will also struggle. Yet the identical word “union” in the names of the Sijixiang Cooperative Union, the Xiangfu Vegetable Cooperative Union, and the Aokun Organic Apple Cooperative Union tells us that cooperatives moving forward hand in hand, learning from each other's strengths to offset their weaknesses, and seeking a shared vision together is the future of cooperative development. Let us take a look at how these cooperatives came together and flourished so vibrantly.

Sijixiang Apple Specialized Cooperative Union——

Apples Fetch a Good Price

Zheng Wei, Xiao Liwei, Li Youmin

The Major Snow solar term has already passed, yet farmers in the Weibei region are still busy with apples. In Baishui County, Shaanxi, by a chance encounter, the reporter met Duan Hongmin, chairman of the Sijixiang Apple Specialized Cooperative Union. He is truly a busy man! One moment he was arranging apple transfers, the next someone came to arrange apple shipments out of the warehouse, and a moment later he was getting up to receive visiting merchants. In front of the reporter, he could hardly hide his excitement, and in his words, being busy for the members is worth it!

The union was only officially established in August 2013, yet in a short time it has already united 14 cooperatives, taking the name “Sijixiang Union.” The union has more than 3,100 member households, drives nearly 7,000 farming households, and has a total orchard area of 23,000 mu, of which 2,200 mu have passed national organic apple certification. Such a large scale is rare not only in the county but even in Shaanxi Province.

Under the union, the Xianguo Apple Professional Cooperative has a fruit grower named Cao Xiehu, and he is remarkable! In November 2010, he stepped onto the podium at Harvard University in the United States and delivered a speech titled “Scientific Fruit Growing Changed My Life,” earning the praise of the college moderator Cord Bayer and hundreds of people in the audience. Having seen the wider world, he believed his own cooperative was too small and lacked a voice in many places. Take organizing production materials, for example: because the volume was insufficient, it was very hard to connect directly with manufacturers; and for certifications such as green apples and organic apples, because the scale was small, certification was difficult and costly. Because of this, he was troubled and anxious, hoping for an organization that could combine scattered small cooperatives to win greater market initiative.

In 2013, Cao Xiehu's wish finally came true. Cooperatives such as Xianguo, Renhe, and Yunfeng in the northwestern part of the county hit it off immediately and formed Baishui County's first union. Facing the large market, the union not only opened two apple specialty stores in Xi'an, but also opened a store in Kunshan City, Jiangsu. This year the union newly opened a total of 4 stores in Nanning, Guangxi, Daoxian, Hunan, and Xi'an, and its market influence has clearly increased. Today the union not only grows apples but also stores them, directly wholesaling and retailing outward, and members' returns have increased rapidly.

In 2014, Baishui apples had another bumper harvest. Duan Guangjie, a fruit grower from Duanjiayuan Village in Yuntai Town, said to the reporter enthusiastically: “After the cooperatives joined together, we have become more confident in our development. Last winter, the union organized training for us, and in summer it organized more than 10 villages with tens of thousands of mu of apple orchards for unified pest and disease control. Because the union carries out unified first-level procurement, fertilizer and pesticides are almost 30% cheaper than before. More importantly, as the union's external outlets continue to increase, premium apples are worth more, and now one sells for the price of two, pushing us all to compete to produce top-quality fruit.” As he spoke, he took an apple out of the cold storage to show the reporter, “An apple like this is still not the best, and the market purchase price per jin is 0.5 yuan higher than in the neighboring village!”

At this point, several fruit growers gathered around, and everyone said all at once: “The most valuable thing is that the union has become stronger, and once any member household has difficulties in production or daily life, the mutual fund assistance within the union really helps a lot.” “Now we have started applying for organic apple certification, and in the future, when organic fruit is launched in bulk, apple prices will be even higher and the benefits even better.”

Li Shiping, the director in charge at the county fruit industry bureau, said with emotion: “After the union was established, the strength it faces the market with has greatly increased, and now the potential of the fruit growers has been brought out. Growing good fruit, storing good fruit, and selling good fruit have become everyone's consensus. Previously fruit growers only grew fruit in the orchard, but now they are no longer limited to the orchard; their footprints are among enterprises, in the large market, and even in international trade, and their range of activity is growing larger and larger.”

At the end, still not having said enough, Li Shiping added: “This is the true meaning of 'Sijixiang'!”

Xiangfu Vegetable Professional Cooperative Union——

An Embarrassing Moment Leads to the Final Union

Xu Chunguang

In Zhucheng City, Shandong Province, many people have heard of the Xiangfu Vegetable Professional Cooperative Union. The union has absorbed 7 vegetable professional cooperatives and 3 economic entities, with 2,368 member households, providing “nanny-style” full trusteeship over 3,300 mu of vegetable bases and “menu-style” partial trusteeship over more than 30,000 mu of farmland.

“We always thought we were a big player locally, with good vegetable quality and high output, and that we could sell for a good price in big cities, so we went to Shanghai to explore the market. A vegetable wholesaler urgently needed 30 tons of winter melon, but the cooperative had a capacity of only 10 tons. We contacted many cooperatives and large growers, but either they did not grow winter melon, or their planting area was small and output low, and we could not even gather 20 tons of supply. In the end, the deal fell through.” Recalling that embarrassing scene at the Shanghai vegetable wholesale market a few years ago, Qiu Yaoguang, chairman of the Oasis Vegetable Production Professional Cooperative, still sighs with emotion.

In 2011, relying on the Yongfengsheng Agricultural Products Professional Cooperative and absorbing 7 vegetable professional cooperatives including Oasis and 3 economic entities, the Zhucheng City Xiangfu Vegetable Professional Cooperative Union was registered and established.