In the first half of this year, the blueberry planting base in Ganhe Township, Yanshan County, Wenshan Prefecture, Yunnan Province completed its second harvest since planting. Compared to the first harvest a year ago, this time the blueberry yield has significantly increased. These blueberries will be sold in fresh food supermarkets in major cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, bringing considerable income to the villagers in the mountain areas of southern Yunnan.
Yunnan is characterized by mountainous and hilly terrain, with only small patches of flat land available in the valleys. Considering the local climate and sunlight conditions, developing specialty agriculture such as small berry cultivation is a good option. Jing’an District facilitated the introduction of Shanghai Lan Feng Investment Management Co., Ltd., which registered and established Yunnan Meilong Town Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd. in Yanshan County to plant blueberries using mobile facilities and soilless cultivation technology.
Blueberry cultivation is a long-term, high-investment, but also high-reward agricultural practice. Newly planted blueberries usually take 2 Zu 3 years to gradually enter the peak fruiting period. Long-term aid projects in Yunnan require long-term planning, continuous assistance, and proper overall management. It takes the successive efforts of many batches of Shanghai aid cadres to witness the day when the industry truly thrives. Isn’t this also a form of long-lasting affection between Shanghai and Yunnan?
Off-season blueberries can sell for up to 160 yuan per jin. The “Meilong Town” project in Yanshan began 3 years ago. In May 2021, the base planted 280,000 soilless blueberries. From December of that year to June of the following year, the first batch of blueberries was harvested, with a per plant yield of 2.5 kilograms and a selling price ranging from 80 Zu 160 yuan per jin. Thanks to Yunnan’s unique climatic conditions, Yanshan blueberries have the advantage of being available off-season. While domestically grown blueberries generally flood the market in summer, Yanshan blueberries begin harvesting at the end of the year, fetching good prices in the Chinese New Year market.
Since the introduction of the blueberry industry, four administrative villages in Ganhe Township, Yanshan County, have achieved a collective economic income of 280,000 yuan annually. Darüber hinaus, the cultivation, maintenance, harvesting, and grading of blueberries require manual labor, providing employment opportunities for farmers and helping increase their income.
In July 2022, Shanghai aid cadres were rotated, with Qiu Yongchun appointed as a member of the Standing Committee of the Yanshan County Party Committee and Deputy County Mayor, and Wang Xinle appointed as Deputy Director of the Yanshan County East-West Collaboration Leading Group Office. A few months later, the Wenshan Prefecture Government signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Guangzhu Agricultural Group to build a digital blueberry full-industry chain project in Yanshan County. Shanghai aid cadres continue to participate in formulating a new benefit linkage mechanism between companies, village collectives, and farmers.
Meticulous long-term planning and steady flow in long-term operations. Long-term projects face risks and slow returns. For farmers, not every day of the year is busy with blueberry harvesting and sales. How to manage risks and build long-term confidence among villagers? Shanghai aid cadres have provided the answer.
Qiu Yongchun stated that first, in terms of land transfer rent income, taking the first phase of Meilong Town as an example: a total of 1,305 acres of land was transferred, priced at 1,300 yuan per acre per year, with an increase of 100 yuan every 5 Jahre, achieving an annual land transfer income of more than 1.7 Millionen Yuan. Second, the blueberry industry aims to strengthen the village collective economy. Each year, the company pays dividends to the village collective accounts based on a certain proportion, providing another source of income besides land transfer and labor.
In Ganhe Township, local farmers intercropped two varieties of corn in seven blueberry greenhouses to support the blueberries’ growth. When planting blueberries, a gap was left between rows, utilizing this space to improve land utilization. The intercropped corn, with its short growth cycle and simple cultivation methods, takes just over 60 days from planting to harvesting, completely staggered with the blueberry growth cycle. This achieves maximum yield per acre by intercropping fruits and vegetables.
Intercropping economic crops not only supports long-term growth with short-term gains but also provides some biological control effects. The aroma from the male flowers at the top of the corn plants attracts agricultural pests, reducing the pest impact on blueberries. After harvesting the mature corn, the stalks are sent to cattle farms as silage. These details reflect the meticulous and long-term cooperation in the Shanghai-Yunnan collaborative industrial project.
Building cold chain storage for a stronger industrial chain. The year Qiu Yongchun went to Yunnan to aid, Yanshan County invested Shanghai East-West collaboration funds to build a blueberry cold chain storage and refrigeration system, which has now been partially completed and put into use.
Cold storage is a crucial part of the fruit industry chain. After being harvested, fruits carry a lot of field heat and produce a lot of heat due to respiration. If not cooled promptly, they will mature faster, affecting storage and transportation, and in severe cases, causing rot. Fresh blueberries are crisp and sweet, but overripe ones will have compromised taste and appearance. Cold storage and cold chain transportation determine whether the value of the marketed blueberries can be maximized.
Zusätzlich, Shanghai aid cadres and Yanshan cadres and villagers are working together to further enhance and improve the intelligence and standardization of the cold chain logistics sector. In the future, blueberries planted and produced in Yanshan County will have their production data tracked in the entire process traceability system, whether in the production or the harvesting cold chain logistics stages.
