Fruit King Wei Xincheng Makes a Fortune with a Single Green Plum

On April 13, Wei Xincheng (left) looks through the harvested green plums.

During the Qingming and Guyu solar terms, the weather warms up, and everywhere you look is lush green. On April 13, beside the cement road in Xinhe Village, Datong Township, Donglan County, dozens of villagers wearing hats and long-sleeved clothes moved among the green plum trees. By the roadside, over a hundred bags of green plums picked that day lay stacked in rows.

Ma Changwang, who had just emerged from the grove, carried a bag of green plums on her shoulder and piled it together with the two bags she had picked in the morning. This was the third bag she had picked today. "There are fewer fruit today, so it's a bit harder to pick. Yesterday was the first day of picking, and there was plenty of fruit on the trees, so it was easy." Ma Changwang, 40 years old, comes from Laoxu Tun, Helong Village, Datong Township. On April 12, she and more than 50 villagers from nearby villages picked green plums in this orchard. Pointing to the day's harvest, she said: "I've picked about 400 jin, and I'll keep picking in a bit."

"There was plenty of fruit yesterday, and the boss paid us 0.25 yuan per jin for picking. Today the fruit is harder to pick, so the boss doubled the price." Earning two or three hundred yuan a day is more worthwhile than going out to work elsewhere, so Ma Changwang was naturally happy.

The boss Ma Changwang spoke of is Wei Xincheng, the grower of this green plum orchard. Now in his fifties, he is a villager of Poqian Tun, Xinhe Village, Datong Township. Since 2001, he has boldly planted green plums and other fruits, opening the door to increased income and prosperity.

"One more day of picking tomorrow, and my green plum orchard will be finished for the season." On April 13, looking at the green plums piled up like a small mountain, Wei Xincheng was delighted. He told the reporter that this year's purchase price for green plums was higher than in previous years, so this year's green plum income is estimated to be double that of last year.

More Than Ten Years of Persistence Finally Pays Off

More than ten years ago, Wei Xincheng saw others embarking on the road to prosperity by planting fruit, so he began to learn to grow it too. In 2001, he took out his savings of many years and introduced more than 4,000 green plum saplings from elsewhere, contracting 70 mu of barren hillside to plant them. At first, due to tight funds and lack of technology, he encountered many difficulties and endured much hardship.

"There were so many difficulties back then. First my family opposed it, afraid I'd lose money growing green plums. Later, my family stopped opposing it, but then technology became the problem. Especially a few years ago, because my grafting technique wasn't up to standard, the green plum trees grew poorly and yields were low." But Wei Xincheng is not one to admit defeat easily; once he sets his mind on something, he persists. Over the years, he and the orchard manager went out early and returned late every day, carefully tending the orchard, and finally figured out the rules for managing green plum trees. His orchard quickly became the county's first green plum planting demonstration base. In 2013, he registered and established the Naheng Fruit Farm (micro-enterprise) in Xinhe Village, Datong Township, Donglan County, and from then on devoted himself wholeheartedly to running the fruit farm.

"After several years of trial and error, if green plum trees get aphids, using imidacloprid or Dongfanghong is quite effective." When talking about tree care, Wei Xincheng is every bit the expert. He said there is actually nothing special about the routine management of green plum trees; you just need to grasp three key periods: for young trees, weeding, loosening the soil, as well as pest control, fertilizing and pruning; when fruiting, weeding and fertilizing; and pruning once a year from October to November. Wei Xincheng said this pruning is quite critical, as it directly determines whether there will be a bumper harvest the following year.

Today, Wei Xincheng has become a "Fruit King" known to everyone locally.

From Seeking Markets to Buyers Coming to His Door

To ensure a market for his green plums, in earlier years Wei Xincheng took the initiative to contact buyers every year, and gradually formed fixed sales channels. But in recent years the situation has gradually changed; Wei Xincheng no longer needs to seek markets, as buyers now come to his door on their own.

"This is all thanks to the newly built cement road in our village." Wei Xincheng said that when their village still had dirt roads, the surface was full of potholes, with many bends and narrow lanes, so many large trucks dared not come in, and buyers mostly "sighed at the road." Now things are better: since the village got a cement road, large trucks can come and go much more easily, and outside buyers also come to contact him on their own initiative.

On April 13, just as Wei Xincheng was weighing the green plums, his phone rang. When he answered, it was a buyer preparing to come purchase his green plums. About half an hour later, the buyer arrived beside the orchard. The buyer's surname is Liang, and he is also a local from Donglan. After a few pleasantries, Boss Liang opened a bag, grabbed a handful of green plums and looked them over again and again, then held them to his nose and sniffed.

"The fruit's appearance is good this year, and there's a shortage everywhere right now. Several factories over in Guangdong have been urging for stock for a while." Boss Liang told the reporter that he has been buying green plums from Wei Xincheng's orchard for two or three years. This year, because there is little supply, many factories are scrambling for stock, so he himself also came to the orchard to "grab" goods. Boss Liang said Datong's green plums are good quality with large fruit, and customers in the market snap them up. At present, Datong's green plums are mainly sold to Guangdong, Yulin, Nanning, Beihai, Guizhou, Yunnan and other places.

Green plum prices vary from year to year. This year, the market price rose a lot, reaching 2.8 yuan per jin, while in previous years it was only about 1.4 yuan. By this calculation, after deducting costs for picking, fertilizer, labor and so on, Wei Xincheng's orchard will have a net income of at least around 200,000 yuan this year.

Tapping into Targeted Poverty Alleviation to Lead Villagers to Prosperity Together

Being rich oneself doesn't count as being rich. Wei Xincheng has always believed this: only when everyone is rich together does it count as being rich. So when the township made green plums a specialty industry for the village, Wei Xincheng encouraged nearby villagers to plant them along with him. In the past two years, after the state implemented targeted poverty alleviation work, Wei Xincheng has gone even further by teaching all his planting techniques and more to poor households.

Next, Wei Xincheng plans to establish a specialty fruit cooperative, bringing nearby poor households into it, not only planting green plums but also introducing other specialty fruits, to drive more villagers to increase their income and prosper.