The story of Ke Sanyi, leader of a winter peach cooperative

"You can pick them yourself, pick whichever one you like, 15 yuan per jin, all premium peaches..." During the National Day holiday, a peach orchard near Tonggong Dam in Zhangqiao Village, Sunbu Town, Xuanzhou District was buzzing with activity. The red, large winter peaches hanging all over the branches made people's mouths water just looking at them. People who came to pick rolled up their sleeves and gently picked the one they liked best...

This orchard is the planting base of the Xuanzhou District Yingshuanghong Winter Peach Professional Cooperative, and the owner is named Ke Sanyi.

Before 2012, Ke Sanyi had been doing timber business in the Ningguo area, earning 60,000 to 70,000 yuan a year. For a rural family, life was fairly comfortable. However, born in the countryside and raised in the countryside, he had a deep love for the land and had always been thinking about getting rich through farming. In February 2013, Ke Sanyi contracted more than 80 mu of tidal flat land near Tonggong Dam in the village to develop fruit planting.

After contracting the land, Ke Sanyi planned to grow grapes. He invited professional technicians to conduct an on-site survey, but was told the soil conditions were not suitable. Later, after hearing that growing winter peaches yielded good returns, he traveled all the way to Qingzhou, Shandong, and invited winter peach experts to conduct soil testing and formula fertilization on his contracted land. He successively purchased 4,000 plants of two winter peach varieties, Yingshuanghong and Dongxuemi, for planting, making him the "first person to grow winter peaches in Xuancheng."

After more than half a year of market research and analysis, Ke Sanyi felt that the economic benefits of growing winter peaches were considerable. He then joined forces with 4 capable farmers in the village to establish a farmers' professional cooperative specializing in the production and sales of winter peaches -- the Xuancheng City Xuanzhou District Yingshuanghong Winter Peach Professional Cooperative -- and began trying large-scale winter peach cultivation.

As the saying goes, peaches take three years, apricots four, and pears five. This autumn, after three years of careful cultivation, the winter peaches planted by Ke Sanyi and the cooperative members bore fruit for the first time and enjoyed a bumper harvest. The 80-plus mu of winter peaches that bore fruit had an estimated average yield of 5,000 jin per mu, with a retail price of 10 yuan per jin. The products are mainly sold to surrounding provinces and cities such as Zhejiang, Shanghai, and Jiangsu. Ke Sanyi said that once the peach trees enter their full fruit-bearing period, the winter peach yield per mu will reach 10,000 jin, and the full fruit-bearing period of peach trees is generally about 15 years.

"These peaches are really sweet, much better in taste than ordinary peaches." Customers who came to buy praised the cooperative's winter peaches for their taste. "The winter peaches we grow are different from ordinary peaches. They bloom in spring, the same time as other peaches, but their growth period is long, all more than 6 months. Yingshuanghong peaches begin to hit the market after the Mid-Autumn Festival each year, and Dongxuemi peaches do not come to market until mid-November. This is the off-season for fruit, so the price is relatively high." Ke Sanyi said with a smile: "Currently, we are the only ones growing winter peaches in Xuancheng. Plus, this kind of peach is crisp and sweet, with plenty of juice, and everyone loves to eat them, so sales are good. On average, we can retail more than 1,000 jin a day."

As countryside sightseeing and picking have become a leisure activity for many people, Ke Sanyi's winter peach cooperative has launched a "picking mode," welcoming people who enjoy sightseeing and picking to experience the fun of picking, while also better promoting winter peach sales. "When nearby villagers learned that our peaches can be picked by visitors themselves, many came to experience it. Seeing the happy expressions on their faces while picking, I also feel very happy," Ke Sanyi said.

Facing a peach orchard about to fully enter its peak fruit-bearing period, Ke Sanyi and the cooperative members are exploring new sales models. He hopes to sell products across the country through e-commerce. "We recently saw online some successful examples of fruit growers selling their products through electronic transactions, and we are preparing to try this method too, to better market our products," Ke Sanyi said. The cooperative's e-commerce transactions are currently handled by one client agent.

Having tasted the benefits of growing winter peaches, Ke Sanyi said: "I want to raise farmers' incomes through growing winter peaches, and at the same time form our village's 'one village, one product' offering, so that more ordinary people can join the cooperative, engage in winter peach cultivation, and take the path of getting rich together."