Edible roses in Anning, Yunnan become a flower of wealth
"These flowers are sold to the edible rose professional cooperative and become an important raw material for making flower cakes." Ma Weilong, a villager from Tiechang Village Committee, Bajie Subdistrict Office, Anning City, Yunnan Province, said while picking flowers. According to the agreement with the cooperative, farmers plant and pick roses independently, and the cooperative purchases them uniformly.
In May, in the mountain fields of Bajie Subdistrict in Anning City, large patches of edible roses bloom in competition. It is understood that the rose variety in Anning is the unique "Dianhong double-petaled" edible red rose, which has the characteristics of strong growth vigor, a long flowering period, bright flower color, rich fragrance, and good processing quality. In recent years, edible roses have become a new characteristic industry for local farmers to increase income and become rich. Fresh flower products are in short supply and have good development prospects.
Bajie Subdistrict is 36 km from the urban area of Anning, with an altitude between 1900 m and 2400 m and an annual average temperature of 14.8°C. It is an ideal place for planting pollution-free edible roses. The roses planted in Bajie Rose Valley are among the better-quality ones among the national edible rose planting bases.
In recent years, roses have been becoming a "flower of wealth" for local villagers, and the lives of every household have undergone tremendous changes. When the reporter met Ma Weilong, he was carrying a basket on his back and busy picking flowers in the rose garden. For consecutive days, like Ma Weilong, local villagers have been busy picking flowers and selling fresh flowers...
Ma Weilong introduced that his family planted 4 mu of edible roses. This year, they have picked more than 300 kg of roses, with an income of more than 3,000 yuan.
Ma Weilong is a typical representative of those who became rich by planting roses. He began planting roses ten years ago, and the returns have always been good. Each year, he can earn about 30,000 yuan from planting roses. Ma Weilong said, "Now my family has even built a small building mainly relying on planting roses."
Fresh flower sorting, filling processing, transportation and packaging... The production workshop of Anning Rose Valley Food Co., Ltd. is also a busy scene. Zhao Guangtu, the person in charge of the company, introduced that as an edible rose professional cooperative, it has recently purchased about 10 tons of fresh flowers from farmers on average every day. "Now is the busiest season. Rose flower cakes are very popular in Beijing, Shanghai and other places, and our daily output cannot meet demand."
Roses not only have "high appearance value" but also high nutritional value and medicinal value. Fresh flowers become food ingredients, and roses become a "flower of wealth." The "beautiful industry" of Anning, Yunnan is growing bigger and bigger.
In the 1950s, villagers in Bajie planted edible roses in scattered plots, and a few farmers opened small workshops to brew rose wine for self-sufficiency. Since the reform and opening up, under the call of the local government and the leadership of enterprises, villagers in various villages have successively joined the ranks of rose planting.
Wang Hua, secretary of the Party Working Committee of Bajie Subdistrict, introduced that Bajie has explored the industrial development model of "company (cooperative) + base + farmers" and developed more than 10 characteristic products such as rose sugar, flower cakes, and rose jam, which sell well at home and abroad. Bajie now has 21 edible rose professional cooperatives. Last year, the edible rose planting area in Bajie totaled 8,900 mu, with a total output of 3,868.41 tons and an output value of 38.68 million yuan.
"Of course, Bajie edible roses also had the pain of unsalable products in the process of production and development." Wang Hua analyzed that due to the rapid expansion of the planting area, local enterprises have insufficient processing capacity, and a complete industrial chain has not yet been formed.
To boost the development of the edible rose industry, Bajie Subdistrict, guided by building beautiful villages, fully taps and utilizes the local long-standing historical culture and food culture, and combines the original ecological natural scenery and green ecological sightseeing agriculture to create a new brand of "rural ecological cultural tourism."
"We should build Bajie edible roses into a beautiful calling card of Yunnan." Wang Hua said, "Next, we will formulate edible rose production standards, improve the entire industrial chain, and drive more villagers to rely on planting roses to achieve a moderately prosperous life."