Citrus flesh is not waste; extracting enzymes from it can fetch a high price

Original headline: Amazing! Discarded citrus flesh turns into "gold"

Our newspaper's report on citrus flesh waste drew attention. Chen Baizhong, a provincial-level inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage "Xinhui Dried Tangerine Peel Making Technique," has a good plan

Provincial-level intangible cultural heritage inheritor Chen Baizhong.

Every year, tens of thousands of tons of Xinhui citrus flesh are thrown away, which is both wasteful and causes environmental pollution. When Xinhui citrus went on the market last year, Guangzhou Daily reported on the current situation of Xinhui citrus flesh, drawing attention from people in the Xinhui dried tangerine peel industry and the agricultural research community. Turning citrus flesh from waste into treasure has aroused people's interest, and Xinbaotang is one of them. Using citrus flesh to develop high-value-added enzyme drinks and efficient compost and other citrus flesh by-products is expected to boost annual output value by 7 billion yuan, and Xinhui citrus flesh is expected to change from past waste into a product as precious as gold.

Extracting high-value-added products such as enzymes from citrus flesh has finally moved from theory to practice. The driving force is Chen Baizhong, chairman of Guangdong Xinbaotang Biotechnology Co., Ltd. and a provincial-level inheritor of the Guangdong provincial intangible cultural heritage "Xinhui Dried Tangerine Peel Making Technique." More than 100 years have passed since his great-grandfather founded the "Xinbaotang" shop name. Although there have been many twists and turns, Chen Baizhong's family of four generations, with their love for Xinhui dried tangerine peel, has persisted in the dream of carrying forward Xinhui dried tangerine peel...

First generation:

Great-grandfather founded "Xinbaotang"

It fell in a storm

Xinhui people all have a complex about Xinhui dried tangerine peel: use it, love it, protect it. Chen Baizhong's family, whose ancestors lived in Xinhui, is no exception.

Chen Baizhong's great-grandfather Chen Jiyao was born in 1863 in Daze, Xinhui. Like other families at the time, he also grew Xinhui citrus; later, Chen Jiyao moved with his whole family to Siya Township, closer to Huicheng, and after growing up he always grew Xinhui citrus and also did business in citrus peel. "When my great-grandfather was young, during the Xinhui citrus harvest season, he often carried a load on a shoulder pole and took his own family's citrus fruit and purchased citrus fruit, or peel, to Huicheng to sell," Chen Baizhong said. "Through his own trial and error in growing, my great-grandfather also created a unique method of storing dried tangerine peel. It would not be damaged by insects or mold spots, and could be stored for decades or even a hundred years without insect damage; we still keep some 1929 dried tangerine peel in our family to this day."

Through years of dealing in citrus fruit and dried tangerine peel, Chen Jiyao accumulated savings and planned to set up a shop in Huicheng to do business. By chance, in 1908, Chen Jiyao took out years of savings and finally bought a second-hand shop at what was then Yulan Street Market in Huicheng, Xinhui, and opened a shop dealing in Xinhui citrus and Xinhui dried tangerine peel, naming it "Xinbaotang." Under Chen Jiyao's careful management, Xinbaotang's fame grew greater and greater.

Unfortunately, however, in the early 1930s, an exceptionally severe typhoon suddenly struck Xinhui. The fierce wind, carrying torrential rain, not only swept through the countryside but also swept across Huicheng, and many houses in lower-lying areas were flooded and collapsed. Chen Jiyao's Xinbaotang also took in water and was in a mess. "The entire first floor of the shop was flooded. Fortunately, the attic where the dried tangerine peel was stored was not flooded, so some dried tangerine peel was preserved," Chen Baizhong said. "That was Xinbaotang's first success, but then it failed again."

Second generation:

Grandmother revived Xinbaotang

She was sentenced in a political turmoil

After the Xinbaotang shop in Huicheng closed, Chen Jiyao transported the luckily preserved dried tangerine peel back to the family home in the countryside and kept it properly. He told his son to take good care of this dried tangerine peel, to remember the name "Xinbaotang," and hoped that one day it could be hung up again.

"But my grandfather was not cut out for business. He focused only on growing Xinhui citrus, and he grew fruit especially well," Chen Baizhong said. "However, my grandmother was very good at business."

Chen Baizhong said that in the 1940s and 1950s, his grandmother took the family's dried tangerine peel to Guangzhou to sell, and brought back gold from Guangzhou, as well as other supplies that Xinhui people needed. "She was the first person in our family to sell dried tangerine peel in Guangzhou," he said. "She was also the first to bring the Xinbaotang name to Guangzhou."

Chen Baizhong's grandmother made money by going to Guangzhou to deal in dried tangerine peel. Back in her hometown, she no longer let the family work the fields, but hired people to farm. "It was also because our family hired people to farm, and because we did business, that my grandmother was sentenced that year for the crime of 'speculation and profiteering,'" Chen Baizhong said. "After its glory, Xinbaotang declined again."

Third generation:

Borrowed more than 300,000 yuan

Father revived the Xinbaotang brand

During the period of large collective farming, Chen Baizhong's father, Chen Huilin, like others, became part of a collective enterprise after graduating from high school. "He first made brooms in a village collective enterprise and also handled product purchasing and sales," Chen Baizhong said. "Later, when policies changed, he thought of the dreams of his grandfather and father and also began doing business in dried tangerine peel."

Around 1986, when collective enterprises implemented restructuring and contracting, Chen Huilin, who harbored the complex of "building Xinbaotang up," borrowed more than 300,000 yuan at the time and established the Xinbaotang Dried Tangerine Peel Wholesale Department.

"Having gone through several great rises and falls, my father was very pragmatic in business and unwilling to take risks. He did not want the business to have major ups and downs again," Chen Baizhong said. "It was precisely my father's pragmatic way of doing business that laid the foundation for Xinbaotang's development today."

Fourth generation:

Building a whole industry chain

He passes the family business on

Time came to 2004. Chen Baizhong, who had worked at China Unicom for 5 years after graduating from university, resolutely resigned with the dream of "passing on the family business," began following his father Chen Huilin to learn how to run the Xinhui dried tangerine peel business, and resolved to carry forward the ancestral "Xinbaotang" name.

"Xinbaotang's development must be steady, and it must also be innovative. It needs transformation, and the same is true for the development of the Xinhui dried tangerine peel industry. It cannot remain stuck in the traditional model," Chen Baizhong said. Influenced by modern business, he was more "ambitious," but as a young man full of vigor, he lost more than 300,000 yuan in his first year in the industry, which dealt a severe blow to his morale. Fortunately, his parents did not blame him, but as always encouraged and supported their son to keep going. "In 2004, my first year in the industry, I lost money doing dried tangerine peel wholesale. It was a big blow. Later I calmly thought it over again, and in 2007 I decided to establish a company and build a brand."

In 2008, Chen Baizhong formally established Xinbaotang Dried Tangerine Peel Co., Ltd., registered "Xinbaotang" as its own brand, opened specialty stores, and became the first local specialty enterprise in Xinhui to implement a branded chain-operation model.

At the same time, Chen Baizhong began cooperating with universities and research institutes to provide scientific support for the development of Xinhui dried tangerine peel through modern technology. "For hundreds of years, Xinhui dried tangerine peel has always been promoted for its medicinal tonic effects, but no one had studied exactly why it is good," he said. "We cooperate with university research institutions precisely to use scientific research to figure out what the active ingredients of Xinhui dried tangerine peel are, and to use scientific evidence to tell everyone that Xinhui dried tangerine peel has medicinal and dietary value."

This scientific research also provided opportunities for Xinbaotang to develop products related to Xinhui dried tangerine peel: in order to meet market demand, Xinbaotang innovated on traditional flavors and successfully developed products such as a dried tangerine peel gift series, dried tangerine peel tea series, dried tangerine peel wine series, dried tangerine peel ready-to-eat series, and dried tangerine peel preserved fruit series; from a single product to diversified products, and then to serialized products, it gradually formed a product line with Xinbaotang characteristics, and was deeply loved by consumers and widely recognized.

Investing hundreds of millions of yuan to extract enzymes from citrus flesh