Nansalu Crisp Plums available for pre-order now — the farmers' association won't buy the plums, so we'll buy them ourselves

Do you remember the good taste of plums from last year?

After the cold of winter and the mild warmth of spring, crisp plum season is about to arrive again.

This spring the drought has been especially severe. We finally got the spring rain we'd been longing for, but now we have another, even more serious matter to worry about.

Nansalu, located in Nansha, decided a few years ago to launch crisp plums under a smallholder-run, self-managed model. As we shared with everyone back then, the plum prices are never ideal each year. Whether it's the farmers' association or the wholesalers doing the buying, the farmers' actual income often falls short of their expenses. Yet they are unwilling to let the plums they worked so hard to care for simply overripen and drop to the ground, forgotten by everyone, so most of them use poles to harvest the fruit and hand it over to wholesalers.

Because we kept seeing this situation repeat itself, we decided a few years ago to go our own way. The plum orchard is lent to us by our family elders to manage and use. We want to treat every plum tree well and live up to the trust our elders placed in us. The other elders in the community have also kept encouraging us, and with everyone's support year after year, we have made it to where we are today.

This year the farmers' association won't buy the plums, so we'll buy them ourselves and do a bit more processing

Now we want to tell everyone what is happening in the production area this year:

In past years, both the farmers' association and wholesalers would come to the production area to buy. Leaving aside how good the purchase price was, for farmers it is always good to have a harvest and an income. The amount may not be large, but even if they earn a little less on the plums, or even lose a little on them, they can still have some income, and the plums, peaches and nectarines grown at home can make up a bit more.

This year, the Jiaxian Farmers' Association has confirmed it will stop buying pole-harvested plums. At the same time, it has proposed a subsidy policy: plum orchards that cooperate by stopping harvest will receive a subsidy of 14,000 per hectare (we later heard that efforts are underway to raise the subsidy amount). But orchards applying for the subsidy must have land that matches the registered land category, and the farmers' association will also send staff to inspect the orchards in mid-March to check whether they are being managed and whether the fruit set rate reaches 30%. If the fruit set rate is below 30%, no subsidy will be given.

Between mid-to-late April and early May, the farmers' association and the Agriculture and Food Agency will send staff again for a second inspection of the orchards to check the fallen fruit situation and whether any harvesting has taken place. If harvesting is found to have occurred, subsidy eligibility will be cancelled outright.

From what we understand, the reason the farmers' association is stopping purchases of pole-harvested plums this time is that demand from preserved-fruit factories has decreased. The factories still have plums, so the market does not need so many.

So what about those who still want to harvest plums? There is an option. On the day of the local briefing, the farmers' association handed out a sheet listing reference prices for delivering fruit to the produce market on one's own.

Over the past year, plum farmers have worked hard to manage their orchards, hoping for nothing more than a harvest. But with the farmers' association stopping purchases, everyone can't help but worry. That leaves only the mid-level wholesalers coming to the production area to buy. This time…… the plum farmers have become meat on the chopping block again, haven't they?

There is a saying: if you plant in a bad field, you hope for next year. It means that if this year's harvest is poor, you pin your hopes on the next year. But this cycle is so painful. How many plum farmers have the confidence to pin their hopes on next year?

Buying directly from farmers may be the only way farmers can protect themselves.

Pre-order information:

This year we are still using No. 5 jars (840ml)

Each jar is priced at 280, and shipping is calculated as follows:

2-4 jars: shipping 150 yuan / 5 jars: shipping 210 yuan

6-9 jars: shipping 100 yuan / 10-11 jars: shipping 50 yuan

12 jars: free shipping / shipping to outlying islands calculated separately

(For 6 jars or more, we cover part of the shipping)

The shipping calculation has been adjusted this year, so please take note.

Also, because the smallest packing carton holds two jars, a single order must be for at least two jars to be valid.

The expected shipping time is around Qingming Festival, adjusted according to how the plums ripen.

Pre-order website: http://goo.gl/x4mVqL

Contact: [email protected] Lin Chun-cheng 0989-093289

Or send us a private message on this page

Taste a bite of fresh green — Nansalu Crisp Plums