Anhui Fengyang zinc-rich grapes link up a sweet industry chain

It is once again the picking season, and the fragrance of fruit drifts below Luogu Mountain. Last weekend, inside the grape greenhouse at the entrance of Dashi Village, Fengyang Town, Shouning County, the family of fruit grower Zhan Xiuzhu was busy guiding tourists in picking high-mountain zinc-rich grapes. Only a little over ten days into the picking season, her family's vineyard had already sold over ten thousand jin, and the wholesale price reached 10 yuan per jin. Such good returns made Zhan Xiuzhu tell this reporter with a smile: "I really never imagined that coming home to grow grapes could bring such good profits."

Four years ago, Zhan Xiuzhu, who had been away doing business, returned home to start a business. At that time, Fengyang Town's grape-growing industry was just emerging, and it was being cultivated as a demonstration project in Shouning County's thousand-mu high-quality late-maturing grape demonstration park. Zhan Xiuzhu keenly sensed the business opportunity hidden within it, and while investigating the market, she began renting land and tried running more than 10 mu of grape greenhouses. Now, after four years of learning the grape business, Zhan Xiuzhu has become a skilled wealth creator. In addition to the more than 50 mu of vineyard she has contracted to plant herself, she has also set up a professional cooperative, leading more than 50 village households and transferring more than 500 mu of land, planning it rationally and relying on new technology to grow grapes, with the output value per mu of land reaching 20,000 yuan.

Today, large growers like Zhan Xiuzhu are found throughout Fengyang's major administrative villages. As a typical high-mountain agricultural production area, Fengyang Town has uniquely favorable natural advantages for growing grapes. The town is located at the northern foot of Baiyun Mountain, with an excellent pollution-free ecology and soil rich in selenium and zinc. The grapes it produces are large, thin-skinned, tender-fleshed, fresh and sweet, and delicious, and their ripening period is more than 30 days later than that of low-altitude areas, effectively staggering the peak grape market season. In recent years, the Party committee and government of Fengyang Town have, on the one hand, established a "company (cooperative) + base + farmers" model, implemented preferential planting policies, provided financial subsidies for planting, and guided fruit growers to comprehensively promote rain-shelter grape cultivation and the integrated "five new" agricultural technologies; on the other hand, through brand promotion, expanding markets, and introducing internet marketing, they are committed to making the grape industry bigger and stronger and opening new paths for increasing people's incomes. Up to now, Fengyang Town has developed a large-scale grape area of 4,500 mu, with an annual output value of more than 80 million yuan, and fruit growers' per capita income has increased by 2,600 yuan.

"How can we make the 'grape effect' more prominent, let tiny grapes string together an industry chain, further radiate to the agricultural industry, and drive farmers across the town to share the sweet fruit? This is the issue we have worked for years to solve," Mei Chunqiang, Party secretary of Fengyang Town, told this reporter. In recent years, relying on its location advantage of being close to the Baiyun Mountain area of the World Geopark, the town has developed rural tourism by setting up points, connecting lines, and forming areas. The town has worked to tap and build the vineyards, farming terraces, high-mountain meadows, cherry blossom viewing gardens, scenery belts around the reservoir area, beautiful villages, and the national mountain bike race base within the town, making the town an ideal destination for ecological sightseeing and leisure sports. Over the past few days, while this reporter was interviewing in Fengyang, it was evident that there was no shortage of self-driving visitors from surrounding counties (cities) who had come by reputation to pick grapes in the vineyards, climb Luogu Mountain, photograph the terraces, and fish along the reservoir area. A photography friend from the Fu'an City Photographers Association told this reporter with great enthusiasm that Fengyang's farming scenery has elements such as standardized farmland, grid-patterned roads, and landscaped surroundings, and is undoubtedly an ideal paradise for summer leisure, picking and sports, and sightseeing photography. According to a local fruit grower surnamed Miao, the rise of rural picking and leisure tourism has allowed them to enjoy the good momentum of grapes selling well without even leaving the vineyard. This year, in their family's 5-mu vineyard, since picking began, on-site self-picking has accounted for nearly 40 percent of total sales.