Apples become a prosperity fruit for farmers in the mountainous areas of Tianshui, Gansu

In Tianshui City, Gansu Province, there is a local specialty called "Huaniu apple" that is renowned both at home and abroad. In recent years, every household in the mountainous areas of Tianshui grows Huaniu apples. The fruit is of high quality and fetches a good price, making it a prosperity fruit for farmers in the mountainous areas. In Huaniu Town, Maiji District, Tianshui City, thanks to the cultivation of Huaniu apples, 13 impoverished villages have now all been lifted out of poverty.

"We people of Huaniu have grown apples for decades, and apples are our treasure." said Wu Mingcheng, a fruit farmer in Huaniu Village, Huaniu Town, Maiji District, Tianshui City. He began growing Huaniu apples in 2001, and over the years, as the Huaniu apples have been grown better and better, his and the villagers' wallets have also swelled day by day.

When Wu Mingcheng first started growing apples, he worked alone. Because his energy was limited, he only rented just over 20 mu of mountain land; later, he led 63 farming households to establish an apple growing professional cooperative, transferred 2280 mu of land, and also built a 2000-ton constant-temperature fruit storage facility and a 3500-square-meter sorting and fine-packaging workshop. As a result, his and the cooperative members' incomes rose significantly.

"Before I grew apples, I never knew where my next meal would come from, and my whole family could not even manage to eat enough." Wu Mingcheng said. Since he began growing apples, his life has changed greatly. In 2010, he spent more than 300,000 yuan to build a new house, and in 2015 he bought a car.

In the mountainous areas of Tianshui, there are not a few farmers who have prospered by growing apples. "Those who started growing apples more than a decade ago have now all become prosperous." said Gao Yongxin, deputy director of the Fruit Industry Bureau of Maiji District, Tianshui City.

Thanks to the demonstration and drive of Wu Mingcheng and a group of pioneers in the Huaniu apple industry, more and more farmers in Maiji District, Tianshui, are growing Huaniu apples, and the district's apple planting area has reached 408,000 mu. The apple industry has also driven the development of other fruit industries. Up to now, the district's total output of fresh and dried fruit in Maiji has reached 490,200 tons, with an output value of 1.567 billion yuan.

The planting scale of Huaniu apples has continued to expand, but in recent years sales problems have emerged.

"The quality is on par with American Red Delicious, but because brand marketing was neglected in the past, the price is much lower than that of American Red Delicious." Gao Yongxin said. Some people even put American Red Delicious labels on Huaniu apples when selling them.

Facing the sales difficulties of Huaniu apples, Tianshui Nongxin E-commerce Co., Ltd. has actively explored internet marketing, "to reshape the brand effect and let good fruit sell at a good price." In July this year, the company registered and established an internet marketing company in Shanghai, hired a professional marketing team at high salaries, and devoted itself to raising the market awareness of Huaniu apples, gradually gaining pricing power, and creating a good sales environment for fruit farmers.

"Just one month after the company was founded, we presold more than 10 million yuan worth of fruit online." said Wang Xuefeng, the company's relevant person in charge. The company's goal is to reach 50 million yuan in sales by the end of this year and achieve 10 million yuan in profits and taxes.

In recent years, the government of Maiji District, Tianshui City, has also actively guided the integration of the Huaniu apple industry with "dual-link and precision poverty alleviation." On the one hand, it provides free seedlings to fruit farmers, and before the fruit trees bear fruit, provides free seeds for vegetables and other cash crops intercropped in the orchards; at the same time, it actively promotes the "company + cooperative + farmer" model, with fruit farmers responsible for growing Huaniu apples and cooperatives or companies responsible for purchasing.

"Before the apples are even picked, there are already orders." Wu Mingcheng said.