Huidong Shanyao Emperor Mandarin has thin peel and crisp flesh, and its taste is truly extraordinary
The 1,100-mu tribute mandarin orchard of the Zhongrun Citrus Professional Cooperative in Huidong County is located in the Baipenzhu mountainous area of Huidong, where people of the Han and Yao ethnic groups start their business together, with a friendship like brothers.
Yao workers picking ripe tribute mandarins in the orchard
In late autumn and early winter, it is exactly the season when tribute mandarins hit the market. At the Jiaokeng orchard in Hengjiang Village, Baipenzhu Town, Huidong County, 23 Yao workers from Funing County, Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, are joyfully welcoming the year's harvest. They shuttle through the tribute mandarin groves, cutting down one golden-peeled tribute mandarin after another. Their boss is Ye Shaodong, a Huidong native and a well-known large mandarin grower. Among them, some have followed Ye Shaodong in business for 10 years.
The 1,100-mu tribute mandarin orchard of the Zhongrun Citrus Professional Cooperative in Huidong County is located in the Baipenzhu mountainous area of Huidong, where people of the Han and Yao ethnic groups start their business together, with a friendship like brothers.
More than 20 Yao workers labor in the orchard
At the Jiaokeng orchard in Hengjiang Village, Baipenzhu, Wei Shengcai, a Yao man from Banlun Township, Funing County, Wenshan Prefecture, Yunnan, has been busy nonstop in recent days. Together with more than 20 other Yao fellow villagers, he cuts ripe tribute mandarins from the groves and puts them in baskets. These golden tribute mandarins are then packed into cartons, loaded onto trucks, and transported to wholesale markets in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and other places.
"Tribute mandarin is also called emperor mandarin. Its peel is thin and smooth, its flesh is crisp and tender, refreshing with no residue, rich in juice, sweet and delicious, and full of fragrant honey aroma." This year, the cooperative's 1,100-mu mandarin orchard yielded about 400,000 tons. Happy to see the harvest, Wei Shengcai tirelessly introduces tribute mandarins to outsiders, looking just like a fruit-growing expert.
In fact, the real fruit-growing expert is the owner of the orchard and the person in charge of the cooperative, Ye Shaodong. It is under his leadership that Wei Shengcai and other Yao workers have had this opportunity to cultivate fruit in Lingnan.
Yao compatriots become orchard shareholders
In 1995, Ye Shaodong started a citrus wholesale business, and at the same time he also planted trees in the mountainous areas of Meizhou and Huidong. The timber business led Ye Shaodong to begin forming ties with Yao compatriots. In 2005, when Ye Shaodong was planting eucalyptus in Meizhou, he was short of manpower, so he recruited some workers. Among these workers, the two brothers Zhang Qianfa and Zhang Yuwu became his first group of workers. These two young men came from the mountainous area of Wenshan Prefecture, Yunnan, on the southwestern border of China. Wenshan Prefecture is home to more than 20 ethnic groups, including Han, Zhuang, Miao, and Yao. Coincidentally, both Zhang Qianfa and Zhang Yuwu married Yao girls from Wenshan Prefecture.
In 2009, Ye Shaodong came to the barren hills of Hengjiang Village, Baipenzhu, to open the Jiaokeng orchard, introducing tribute mandarin cultivation from Deqing, Zhaoqing. Zhang Qianfa agreed without hesitation and brought several Yao brothers to help open the mountain and plant fruit. One mu, two mu... to a thousand mu, Ye Shaodong's orchard grew from nothing and made him a large mandarin grower in Huidong. In 2013, the Huidong County Zhongrun Citrus Professional Cooperative was established. Yao compatriots joined the cooperative as members by household and became shareholders of the orchard.
He is the "big brother" of the Yao compatriots
In the process of cultivating tribute mandarins, Ye Shaodong developed a deep brotherly bond with the Yao compatriots. On ordinary days, everyone gets along like brothers and helps each other, without the natural barrier between boss and workers. Regardless of gender or age, the Yao workers like to call Ye Shaodong "big brother."
What moved Ye Shaodong most was that in March 2009, when his elderly father passed away, he had few relatives and close friends nearby, and for a time he lacked manpower to handle his father's funeral affairs. The Zhang Qianfa brothers, again without hesitation, found more than 20 Yao fellow villagers to voluntarily help Ye Shaodong handle the funeral. Ye Shaodong has kept this gratitude in his heart.
Ye Shaodong once told the Yao workers that if they still could not build a house back home after working in the orchard for 5 years, he would pay the shortfall. Yao man Liu Ting and his wife have worked in the orchard for more than 3 years. "Building a new house has been my dream for many years. In the whole village, only my family has not built one yet." Liu Ting plans to return home soon to build a house, but still has a shortfall of fifty or sixty thousand yuan. When Liu Ting mentioned the house-building matter to Ye Shaodong, Ye Shaodong immediately advanced him several tens of thousands of yuan in wages.
"Only with deep affection and righteousness can the mandarin be crisp"
Ye Shaodong, who values affection and righteousness, makes the Yao workers willing to follow him in business. Ye Shaodong now has 3 citrus orchards, distributed in Hengjiang Village and Baima Village of Baipenzhu, with an area of 1,100 mu. Wholesaled at 4.2 yuan per market jin for unified fruit, this year's 400,000 tons of tribute mandarins will bring sales of at least 3 million yuan. Moreover, this wholesale price rises as the fruit quantity decreases.
Zhang Deng, his wife, and his parents, a family of four laborers, all work in the orchard. In addition to a guaranteed monthly salary of 1,800 yuan, they also become cooperative members as a household and can receive dividends at the end of each year. Zhang Deng said that after working in the orchard for more than 4 years, the family now has an annual income of 120,000 yuan. This year, the 160 mu of tribute mandarins he manages in sections had a good harvest, so his income will be even higher. "This figure is a very high level in our hometown. Thanks to big brother, we could escape poverty ahead of time."
Ye Shaodong hopes that with the hard sweat of these diligent Yao brothers, Huidong tribute mandarins can be built into a well-known domestic brand. Recently, the trademark Ye Shaodong registered for the cooperative's tribute mandarins received approval from the relevant department of Huidong County: "Shanyao Crisp Mandarin," with the advertising slogan: "Only with deep affection and righteousness can the mandarin be crisp."