Quality Fruit Goes Global, Spreading Fragrance Across the World

In golden autumn Xinjiang, melons and fruits are fragrant. On September 3, the “Second China Quality Fruit Promotion Event of the China-Eurasia Expo” hosted by the Department of International Cooperation of the Ministry of Agriculture was held at the Urumqi International Convention and Exhibition Center.

In early autumn, Urumqi had clear skies and sparse white clouds. In the exhibition hall on the 5th floor of the convention center, a dazzling array of fruit products of every color was on display, with a hubbub of voices and a scene of extraordinary liveliness. More than 300 enterprise representatives from 13 provinces (regions) including Xinjiang, Shanxi, Hainan, Gansu and Anhui, as well as representatives of agricultural departments and fruit enterprises from Eurasian and other countries, were exchanging experience and discussing cooperation.

Niu Dun, Vice Minister of Agriculture and Honorary President of the China Apple Industry Association, and his delegation carefully viewed fruit products such as thin-shelled walnuts from the Third Regiment of the First Division of Xinjiang, kiwifruit from Meishan, Shaanxi, and jackfruit from Hainan in the exhibition halls of various provinces, and from time to time asked producers and distributors about production standards, environmental conditions of producing areas, sales channels and brand building.

“China is the largest fruit industry country, but it is not yet the strongest. Through platforms such as this promotion event, we should strengthen cooperation and exchanges with SCO member states and other countries and regions, better improve the market competitiveness of our country's fruit industry, and promote our country's quality fruits to go global better.” said a relevant official of the Ministry of Agriculture.

Quality Is the Cornerstone of Brand Building

——“Good fruit products are not afraid of having no market”

Qin'an honey peaches, a nationally protected geographical indication product, originate from Tianshui City, Gansu Province, and have long been renowned at home and abroad for their bright color, delicious taste and high nutritional value, and are favored by consumers. At the promotion event, Qin'an honey peaches also became a focus of attention. In front of the Gansu exhibition counter, people seeking information about Qin'an honey peaches were packed several layers deep.

The Qin'an honey peach producer Qin'an County Boyang Fruit Co., Ltd. has a Qin'an honey peach planting base of more than 100,000 mu in Tianshui. The company's head, Yang Guonv, is a native of Qin'an who grew up eating Qin'an honey peaches grown in the mountain valleys. A few years ago, however, she found that the honey peaches bought from the market had “changed flavor.” “When I was little, Qin'an honey peaches grew in the mountains, drank mountain spring water and were fertilized with farmyard manure, so their quality and taste were very good. But in recent years many growers have pursued yield one-sidedly and have not planted according to organic standards, which has caused the quality of Qin'an honey peaches on the market to decline somewhat.”

So Yang Guonv decided to contract land herself and grow Qin'an honey peaches organically, to recover the “old taste” of her childhood. In the early stage of building the orchard, she constructed it strictly according to organic planting standards. In 2013, the honey peach trees in the base bloomed and bore fruit, with a yield of more than 3,000 jin per mu. “The yield was not high, but the quality and taste were very good, and the market response was excellent right away.” Yang Guonv said.

Now Yang Guonv has also applied for the “Guonv” brand trademark for the base's honey peaches, and plans to open up foreign markets and export Qin'an honey peaches to Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries. “This exhibition provided us with an opportunity to negotiate better with foreign exporters. Exporting abroad can, on the one hand, raise the price of honey peach products and bring farmers greater benefits; on the other hand, export requires passing a series of tests, and these test results can make consumers more convinced of the quality and safety of our products.” Yang Guonv said, “Quality is the foundation of brand building. As long as fruit products remain high quality, there is no need to worry about having no market, and the brand can become more and more resounding.”

Market Potential Gives Fruit Producers More Confidence

——“What I have my eye on is the huge domestic fruit consumption potential”

“Over more than thirty years of reform and opening up, with China's rapid and sustained economic development, the consumption capacity and level of urban and rural residents have also risen, creating huge market demand for quality fruits.” said Liu Jundi, associate professor at the College of Economics and Management of Northwest A&F University. “The trend of growing demand for quality fruits is very obvious, and it has also made many fruit producers see opportunities.”

Wang Jindu, general manager of Jindu Agricultural Development Co., Ltd., is one of the many Taiwanese businessmen who came to the mainland to “strike gold” in fruit. Now in his early sixties, he has been engaged in agriculture for nearly thirty years, 15 of which were spent growing fruit in Hainan and Zhanjiang, Guangdong.

“The domestic market potential for quality fruit consumption is very large; this is the main reason I came to the mainland.” Wang Jindu said. “Taiwan, China, has many fruit varieties that are novel and of excellent quality, which can meet domestic consumers' demand for quality fruits.” Over these 15 years, Wang Jindu has introduced many new-style fruits from Taiwan, China, and planted them in areas with similar climates such as Hainan and Zhanjiang.

In the Hainan exhibition counter, there was a new-style jackfruit called “durian honey.” After variety improvement, compared with the original jackfruit, its size is smaller, yet the sticky latex inside the original jackfruit is gone, and the taste is also better. “This kind of jackfruit was only introduced from Taiwan, China, to Hainan last year. The quantity is not large, but it is very popular with consumers and was all ordered soon after it came on the market.” The freshly arranged durian honey fresh fruit in the counter was likewise snatched up and tasted by visitors in less than a minute.

“For so many years, because of good quality and low yield, our fresh fruit products have mainly gone to refined, high-end markets, and often demand already exceeded supply at the place of production.” Wang Jindu said. “Expanding scale and increasing output are our main plans for the next step. This quality fruit promotion event also gave us a very good promotion platform. Government support and guidance have made me even more confident in continuing to develop the quality fruit industry.”

Regional Cooperation Enhances the Competitiveness of Quality Fruit

——“Let quality fruit go out of China, go to Asia and go to the world”

Last year, China's fruit output reached 150 million tonnes, ranking first in the world in quantity. But an advantage in quantity cannot be directly converted into an economic advantage. On the basis of ensuring the quality rate of fruit, how to broaden the international trade channels for China's quality fruit is the key factor in achieving benefit growth in the fruit industry.

The opening of international trade channels cannot be separated from the role of building a series of platforms. The successful holding of the China Quality Fruit Promotion Event played an important role in enhancing the international influence of China's quality fruit, promoting exchanges and cooperation in the fruit field between China and SCO member states, and adding new vitality to the construction of the “Silk Road Economic Belt.”

In addition to building a platform for production-sales matching, the organizers of the promotion event also created opportunities for dialogue and discussion among SCO member states. At the seminar, fruit industry experts from China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and other countries introduced and shared the development situation of each country's fruit industry and the current status and development potential of fruit trade between China and SCO member states, and put forward opinions and suggestions for promoting the development of the fruit industry between China and SCO member states.

“Quality fruit is, after grain production and vegetable production, the third flagship product in the development of China's crop farming. We should use platforms such as the quality fruit promotion event to jointly discuss how to further advance the production level of quality fruit, and cooperate with SCO member states to better improve the market competitiveness of China's quality fruit, so that China's quality fruit can go global, go to Asia and go to the world.” emphasized Yang Yi, Director of the Foreign Economic Cooperation Center of the Ministry of Agriculture.