Kumquats Become Golden Fruits of Prosperity, Small Fruits Grow into Better-Income Days
"In the past, farming fed us; now, growing fruit earns us money!" On the morning of December 18, at the scene of the 6th Rong'an Kumquat Festival, a sentence from young farmer Lan Yougan struck a chord with many fruit growers. The young man's joy can be confirmed by a set of figures announced by the Rong'an County government that day: in 2015, Rong'an's kumquat planting area reached 115,000 mu, with an estimated output value of 400 million yuan, and the per capita income of fruit growers increased by 79% compared with 2012.
E-commerce Sales Increased 10-Fold
Lai Yuanyuan, 28, is a highly educated fruit grower in Rong'an County who returned from studying abroad. She told reporters that last year, when she first tried online sales through e-commerce, the cooperative she belongs to sold about 50 tons of kumquats from 360 mu. This year, the cooperative has already presold 500 tons of high-quality kumquats through e-commerce.
Faced with a 10-fold increase in sales in a single year, Lai Yuanyuan was full of emotion. She said: "Without government support, we could not have come this far."
It turned out that not long after Lai Yuanyuan returned to her hometown in 2014, she received strong assistance from the Rong'an County government. At an exhibition of famous, special and high-quality agricultural products, the local e-commerce service center learned of their idea to sell online, thought it was a good idea, and sent staff to voluntarily help them build an online store, do a good job in packaging design, and teach them to build a "traceability system" so that customers could monitor the condition of the fruit at any time. Lai Yuanyuan said that as soon as the online store was built, it welcomed its first big customer, a WeChat merchant from Nanjing. After benefiting from the cooperation, that person introduced the business to his friends. Subsequently, WeChat merchants from Shanghai, Qingdao, Dalian and other places came in droves. Through the internet, kumquat sales rose sharply.
There are more than 380 kumquat e-commerce sellers like Lai Yuanyuan in Rong'an, and they have all received strong support: in addition to pulling fiber optic cables into the villages so that fruit growers can connect with the outside world at any time, the local government also provides free online store design, office space and office supplies, allowing e-commerce sellers to work together in a centralized place and develop as a group. Rong'an kumquats began online presales in May this year, and 75,000 kg of kumquats have already been presold.
Ensuring High-Quality, Fresh Fruit
The sharp increase in sales would not have been possible without online marketing. However, ensuring "high quality" and "freshness" was also a key weapon behind the 10-fold sales growth.
Lai Yuanyuan told reporters that before the kumquats ripened, she went to Guilin, Liuzhou, Nanning and other places to select logistics companies to ensure the fastest speed and safest transport. She was equally meticulous about fruit quality control. The cooperative she belongs to formulated a strict management process: before picking and selecting fruit, sponges must be placed at the bottom of the fruit baskets; pickers must first trim their nails and wear gloves; when picking, the fruit stems must be cut off to avoid any scratches on the surface of the kumquats and ensure the fruit stays fresh.
In addition, the local government sends experts to the fields every year to guide fruit growers free of charge in preventing pests and diseases. Fruit growers are thoroughly familiar with biological pest control techniques such as insect traps, yellow sticky boards and predatory nets, and they can solve minor problems on their own.
It is understood that Rong'an kumquats rank among the top in output and quality among kumquat production areas nationwide, with the rate of high-quality fruit reaching more than 85%. This year, it was selected among China's Top 50 Regional Public Brands of Fruit Products.
Harvesting "Golden Fruit" to Build New Houses
On the day of the kumquat festival, the orchard of 52-year-old Yang Xuanquan won the Rong'an "Green Food Demonstration Orchard" award. He is the leader of the Mingxing Cooperative in Dajiang Town. He told reporters that government support gave him no worries, and he brought his poor friends around him into the cooperative to develop the kumquat industry and become prosperous together.
Cooperative member Huang Wei, 48 this year, was once very poor. Back then, in order to raise tuition and living expenses for his child in senior high school, he borrowed money everywhere. In 2006, Yang Xuanquan, who had first tasted the sweetness of growing kumquats, suggested that Huang Wei grow the fruit and lent him 20,000 yuan as capital. After seven or eight years of kumquat cultivation, Huang Wei and his family's life improved, and now they have also built a new house.
Yang Xuanquan told reporters that thanks to the government's vigorous publicity and promotion, Rong'an kumquats have become widely known, with customers all over the country, and almost all of them come to buy directly. Last year, the government also introduced an automatic drip irrigation system for fruit growers, reducing the hard work of fetching and carrying water for irrigation, so farming and sales are now easier. And every fruit grower who has become prosperous has built a new house.
In addition, in 2013 the government began implementing a policy of "rewarding instead of subsidizing": those planting more than 50 mu receive a reward of 600 yuan per mu; those planting more than 100 mu receive a reward of 900 yuan per mu. From 2014 to 2015, this policy benefited more than 9,000 farming households, including more than 4,000 poor households.