After processing, persimmons can sell for 60 yuan per jin

       Right now, in many persimmon-growing areas of our city, you can look up and see plenty of red persimmons hanging all over the branches; on some trees many leaves have already fallen, yet no farmers are coming to pick them.

“Persimmons are just too cheap, a few mao per jin, and today there isn't even anyone coming to buy them. Besides, I've heard that eating persimmons can cause gallstones, so this year the villagers in the village couldn't be bothered to pick them and simply let them rot on the branches.” Chen Yongfu of Xiaqiao Village, Yongfeng Town, Linhai, told the reporter.

But in Shuigang Village, Yongfeng Town, at an altitude of 370 m, red persimmons have sold for six or seven yuan per jin in recent days. The first-grade persimmon cakes, two jin per box, made in a drying room, sell for as much as 120 yuan per box. Walking into the village, you see tourists wearing gloves and holding fruit peelers vigorously peeling persimmon skins, with cheers from their groups of family and friends ringing out from time to time…… According to Cui Jinfa, head of the Shuige Red Persimmon Professional Cooperative, there is no worry about selling Shuigang Village's red persimmons; besides their good quality, credit also goes to the growers' constant innovation.

The reporter learned that Shuigang Village invested 200,000 yuan last year to build a drying room, putting peeled fresh persimmons into the drying room to be dried for five days and five nights to make persimmon cakes. “Persimmon cakes are more fragrant than fresh red persimmons, chewier, and not as sweet as dried persimmon cakes, so they are very popular with consumers. On the other hand, fully ripe red persimmons can only be stored for two or three days, but persimmon cakes have a shelf life of 20 days, which gives us much more ample time for sales and greatly raises the added value of the persimmons.” said grower Cui Yunqiang.

“In the past, we basically only picked first- and second-grade persimmons, and let those small, unattractive ones rot on the branches. Now we are planning to develop persimmon wine, so that everything can be put to good use. The drying room is rather small now; once the scale grows, the persimmons we grow ourselves may not be enough, and we'll have to buy them from elsewhere.” Cui Yunqiang said.

It is reported that this year Shuigang's red persimmons cover a total of 350 mu and can produce 130,000 jin, of which first-grade fruit accounts for 30% of total output and second-grade fruit accounts for 50%. “With higher output and better quality, the growers' income naturally rises too.” Cui Jinfa told the reporter.