Veteran Xia Junzhi grows grapes and leads his fellow villagers to prosperity
“Come and try this Summer Black; it's sweet and fruity, and the flavor lingers on your lips and teeth.” Xia Junzhi handed me a bunch of black grapes that looked like pearls, his dark face beaming with the joy of a bumper harvest.
On July 26, taking advantage of the cool morning breeze, I walked into Madian Village, Lucheng Town, Lujiang County, Anhui Province. Alongside Provincial Highway 316 lies a vast fruit base. The white greenhouses open out like a pair of wings, row upon row. Beneath the greenhouses are neatly arranged grapevines, each bearing clusters of glistening fruit in purple, yellow-red, and green.
Xia Junzhi is the owner of this farm, a young post-90s veteran. When I met him, he was leading workers into the fruit shed to pick grapes, his camouflage uniform soaked through with sweat.
“In 2010, after I was discharged and returned home, I found a stable job in Shanghai, but the urge to start my own business kept ”stirring“.” Xia Junzhi chatted with me while picking grapes, “I wanted to farm, to develop leisure and sightseeing agriculture, and to become a ”new farmer“.”
From the countryside to the city, and then back to the countryside, Xia Junzhi's choice of path did not bring him any reproach from his family. On the contrary, he won his whole family's support with practical market research and prospects analysis. After more than two months of searching and knocking on the doors of hundreds of farming households, with the help of local village committee officials, he finally found a contiguous plot of 200 [mu] in Madian Village. With the support of relatives and friends, he invested more than 3 million yuan to build the Linhai Fruit Picking Base.
He leveled the land, refined the plans, and built greenhouses resistant to strong winds. He went through many hardships and difficulties, but Xia Junzhi overcame each obstacle with a soldier's tenacious style and spirit of endurance. After the base was built, he set the tone of organic cultivation, focusing on grapes, and selected 6 different grape varieties to plant. “This ensures that from July to November, there will be a new variety to pick every month.” Xia Junzhi said, “There are more than 130 grape varieties nationwide. These were selected by our skilled technicians after inspections in various places and considering the local soil and water conditions.” These new fruits are planned to be priced not cheaply, but Xia Junzhi remains optimistic about the market prospects.
“The vineyard is like my child, carefully tended day and night.” Under Xia Junzhi's meticulous management and care, more than a dozen grape varieties, including Summer Black, Red Globe, Crimson Seedless, Frey, and Golden Finger, took root, sprouted, grew lush foliage, and bore abundant fruit. At the same time, he also used online communication platforms such as Alibaba and physical investment promotion platforms such as agricultural expos in various places to market his products.
In 2011, his grape planting area reached 60 mu, with an annual output of more than 90,000 kg of grapes and sales of 1 million yuan. This year, the planting area has reached more than 170 mu, and sales are expected to reach more than 2 million yuan. The grapes from June and July are mainly sold to Nanjing, Hefei, Wuhu, and other places, while the later-maturing grapes are mainly sold to major supermarkets.
“Being rich alone doesn't count as being rich; only when everyone is rich is it truly prosperity.” While achieving success in his own business, Xia Junzhi did not forget to lead his fellow villagers to prosperity together. In 2012, he specifically established a grape planting professional cooperative, driving more than 300 grape growers in the surrounding area and beyond to prosper together.
Xia Junzhi is not only responsible for purchasing all the grape seedlings, but also freely teaches the grape-growing techniques he has carefully studied over many years. He made a promise to the farmers participating in grape growing: if the quality of the grapes they grow meets the standards of the plantation, all their products will be exclusively sold by him.
His promise gave many farmers who followed him into grape growing a “reassurance pill”, and everyone's enthusiasm for growing grapes grew even higher. This also attracted more farmers to learn grape-growing techniques from him. The planting area also reached nearly 1,000 mu, with annual sales reaching more than 10 million yuan.
Speaking of the future, Xia Junzhi, this sunny and optimistic handsome young man, is full of confidence: “I plan to strengthen brand operation, expand the influence of the plantation, and attract more tourists to come here. Then I'll develop supporting industries, extend the plantation's industrial chain, improve economic benefits, and lead more people to make a living from ”grapes“!”