Colorful wheat brings high returns: one mu sells for the price of two mu
“Nowadays people pay attention to health preservation, and dietary structures are constantly shifting toward health-oriented choices. The colorful flour and noodles I process are rich in protein and lysine, as well as trace elements beneficial to the human body such as zinc, iron, selenium and calcium. They are more nutritious than ordinary flour. Although the price is half again as expensive as ordinary flour, they are still in short supply!” Recently, at the Dapang Grain Planting Cooperative in Nansun Village, Yangtun Township, Chiping County, Shandong Province, cooperative president Sun Dapang, while showing bags of just-harvested black and green wheat, introduced: “Colorful wheat is planted and managed exactly the same as ordinary wheat, but the price is nearly double, and one mu can earn the money of 2 mu. I can now process 100,000 jin of colorful wheat each year, with profits exceeding 300,000 yuan.”
“Colorful wheat has high nutritional value and is rich in trace elements, and the trace elements are all naturally biologically transformed, purely naturally formed. Colorful wheat also has medicinal value, with functions of resisting aphids, preventing cancer, resisting blood coagulation, as well as clearing heat, promoting urination and nourishing liver qi. It is very popular on the market!” At the mention of colorful wheat, Sun Dapang became energized and opened up like a flowing river.
Sun Dapang began growing colorful wheat in 2012. At that time, the quick-witted Sun Dapang keenly realized that as people's quality of life continued to improve, market demand for green foods with health benefits would grow larger and larger. Through investigation, he tried planting 40 mu of colorful wheat. The next year, as soon as the black wheat was harvested, it attracted people's attention, and customers came in an endless stream to place orders and learn from him. In the end, it all sold out at a price of 1.8 yuan per jin. Sun Dapang won his first battle, and the colorful wheat had a bumper harvest, earning nearly a thousand yuan more per mu than ordinary wheat.
In 2013, Sun Dapang struck while the iron was hot and transferred more than 200 mu of land to grow colorful wheat on a large scale. At the same time, colorful wheat is rich in trace elements and is a very good raw material for nutritional health foods, with high processing added value. Sun Dapang decided to engage in deep processing of wheat, lengthen the economic chain, and lead local farmers onto the road to prosperity together. Soon, he took the lead in establishing the Dapang Grain Planting Professional Cooperative, built a stone-milled flour processing and noodle processing factory, and purchased cooperative members' colorful wheat at 1.8 yuan per jin. The collected colorful wheat was sent to the processing workshop to be made into stone-milled colorful flour, handmade colorful noodles and dropped noodles. After the products were launched on the market, they were very popular with consumers, achieving a win-win-win for growers, enterprises and the cooperative. At present, through the “cooperative + enterprise + farmer” model, Sun Dapang's cooperative has promoted the planting of more than 500 mu of colorful wheat, increasing local villagers' income by more than one million.
“Old Sun has taken the right path in growing and processing colorful wheat!” Interjected customer Sun Guohua, the owner of a hot pot restaurant, who was loading noodles onto a vehicle. “Noodles made from colorful wheat taste good and are nutritious. Customers all like to order them. Now the shop has a very large demand, and this time I am ordering 2,000 jin first!”
“Now our colorful wheat is sold as seed at a price of 1.8 yuan. This year alone, one customer from Tianjin ordered 100,000 jin, and there are also customers from Qingdao, Linyi and other places. The cooperative's more than 500 mu of wheat is basically all pre-ordered!” Sun Dapang introduced. “I kept 100,000 jin myself for processing, including 50,000 jin of flour and 50,000 jin of noodles, basically pre-ordered by some regular customers! Colorful wheat flour is priced at 4 yuan per jin, and noodles at 5 yuan, more than double the profit of ordinary flour at 1.7 yuan and noodles at 1.8 yuan!”
“The main problem now is the small planting scale. The next step will focus on attracting more and more farmers to join in growing colorful wheat, further expanding the planting area, developing health foods that suit the market, and turning colorful wheat into a big industry!” Speaking of his colorful dream of prosperity, Sun Dapang was full of confidence.
Zhang Dong, Jia Cui