It was already dark, and Guo Jiensong and his wife were still busy picking apples in the orchard. Looking at the apples in the orchard, the couple smiled from ear to ear, "This year is another good year!"

"The car in front is driving in. Don't get stuck in the middle of the road. The car behind can't get in." On the morning of October 27, at the apple trading market in sikou town, Qixia city, Lin Tianyi, head of the forestry station in sikou town and head of the comprehensive law enforcement squadron, took a loudspeaker to guide the fruit growers to stop. "now is the busiest time in the market. fruit growers from several nearby villages and towns have come to sell apples. this year's fruit is good and the price is high. I am happy for the fruit growers!"

From October 27th to 28th, we went to Qixia, the main apple producing area in Yantai, to see how the apple harvest was this year? How was the income of the fruit growers?

In the apple orchard, heavy apples bend the branches, and the red color makes people greedy; in the market, carts of red apples continue to arrive, from here to all parts of the country, production and sales are booming; in the workshop, machines are roaring, apple chips, apple vinegar, cider and other deep-processing products have been offline, favored by consumers... "This year, the price of apples rose 1 yuan/kg compared to last year, although the weather and other factors slightly reduced production, but the income of fruit farmers is certainly much better than last year." Said Hao Wenqiang, deputy director of Qixia Fruit Industry Development Service Center and agricultural technology extension researcher.

Orchard, fruit growers, purchasers, e-commerce, fruit processing enterprises, fruit industry experts, a red apple strung up a rural revitalization industry chain, booming the days of fruit growers.

Price rose 1 yuan/kg year on year

At the apple trading market in Sikou Town, Qixia City, Bing Zhanwei, a fruit farmer in Pijialing, Sikou Town, brought a cart of apples to sell. His family has planted 10 mu of apples, with a new garden of 78 years old and an old orchard of more than 10 years old.

"Affected by the climate this year, 70000 bags have been set, with an output of nearly 30000kg." Bing Zhanwei said, but the sales price of apples this year is higher than in previous years. Last year, the most expensive fruit was sold for 3.6 yuan/jin, and this year the most expensive fruit can be sold for 4.7 yuan/jin. "Although the output has declined, in terms of total income, it is about the same as last year or even better than last year."

In recent days, Bing Zhanwei has driven to the market every day to sell apples. He has been selling apples for more than ten days, selling more than 1600 catties a day. The price was good a few days ago, and it can be sold for 4.5 yuan per catty. The price has dropped a little in the past few days, and it has been sold for about 2/3.

"Everyone said that this year the country's major apple production areas to reduce production, are waiting for price increases, but the market no one can say. Therefore, as in previous years, ready to sell the 2/3, the remaining apples into the cold storage." Bing Zhanwei said.

On the other side of the market, Wang Xisheng, a fruit farmer in Anlezhuang Village, Guandao Town, stopped the car and was exchanging today's apple price with other fruit farmers. "My family picked apples late and only sold 1/3 so far. The remaining apples look at the price. If the market is not good, they may be put in the cold storage."

"The purchase price of apples is high this year. I sold 20 baskets of apples, totaling more than 1400 catties." cui zhibao, a fruit farmer in cuijiazhuang village of sikou town, said with a smile, "this year the whole red apples sold for 3.4 yuan per jin, compared with last year, apples of the same quality sold for more than 1 yuan per jin. this year, fruits above 80# can account for 2/3."

Liu Yaohu, a 63-year-old fruit farmer, planted apples with good fruit shape and good light, and sold them at a good price. "all red apples sold for 4 yuan per jin."

Wang Gang, who lives in Hedong Village, Songshan Street, Qixia City, has sold out all the apples in his family's 3 mu of land. "I haven't had such a good price in years!" Wang Gang said that his family has set 70000 bags this year, and the most expensive one catty sells for 5.5 yuan. "The cost of my orchard is not that big. It is managed by my family. This year, after deducting the cost, I can earn about 70000 yuan."

The apple trading market in Qixia Sikou Town covers an area of 200 mu. During the apple sales season, buyers from Anhui, Jiangsu, Henan, Jilin and other places gather. Fruit farmers from Xicheng Street, Sujiadian Town, Guandao Town, Guanli Town and Zhaoyuan City in Qixia City come here to sell apples. The daily trading volume of apples reaches more than 100 million jin, which can largely reflect the latest trend of apple prices.

"The price will fluctuate slightly every day, but the overall price is about 1 yuan higher than last year." Market buyer Wang Jianbo said. "In previous years, after the frost, the price of apples will fall, but this year the price is very strong, almost falling." Yu Zuochen, the purchaser, said, "For example, the purchase price of all red 70# fruits is 2.2 yuan/kg, the purchase price of all red fruits above 80# is 3.3 yuan/kg, and the purchase price of striped fruits above 85# is 4.5 yuan/kg. Whether it is 1. secondary fruits or small fruits, the purchase price is 1 yuan higher than in previous years."

Qixia City HaoSheng fruit professional cooperatives from Sikou Town Apple trading market is not far away, the cooperative head Yan Xuelong said: "This year, the price of apples is very considerable, although there is a certain degree of production, but the high quality fruit rate is generally high, fruit farmers cut production is not reduced. Cooperatives full library capacity of 5000 tons, this year only 2500 tons of storage. This also has a relationship with the high price of apples, many fruit farmers because the high price directly sold."

good quality

Seize the key to the market

Good apples don't worry about selling. Good quality is still the key to seizing the market.

Guo Jiansong is a native of Dalujia Village, Guanli Town, Qixia City, and is also a well-known local apple owner. His apples were booked in advance by the purchaser before the tree was planted.

Why do they sell so well? In Guo Jiansong's view, there is no secret, that is, the quality of apples is good.

In the 1990 s, Guo Jian loosened his truck to transport apples. In 2009, he returned to his hometown to contract 50 mu of barren hills and began to plant apple trees.

"Every family in our village grows apples. Since childhood, they have been very close to apples. They have always felt that growing apples has a future and can make people rich." Guo Jiansong said.

It is this kind of apple love that Guo Jiansong is particularly attentive to his orchard and manages it very carefully. "The key to growing good apples lies in raising the ground." In order to raise land, Guo Jiansong applies a large amount of organic fertilizer every year. Although the cost is high, his income is also rising.

"I hired 20 or 30 people to pick apples, and they will be finished in 7 days." Guo Jiansong said. The income of 50 mu orchard is expected to reach about 700000 yuan, and the net profit after removing the cost can reach more than 300000 yuan.

What is the quality of apples this year? Hao Wenqiang analysis said, although by less rainfall, low temperature and other climatic factors, some areas of apple production, but in the apple growing season did not encounter greater natural disasters, Qixia producing areas of apple quality fruit rate reached more than 85%.

"The reduction in production is not large, and one mu of orchard can still reach about 8000kg." Hao Wenqiang said: "the high rate of high-quality fruit is closely related to the transformation and upgrading of the apple industry in recent years. On the one hand, fruit farmers realize the importance of fine management, on the other hand, the proportion of large-scale planting is increasing year by year."

Yan Xuelong also spoke highly of the quality of this year's apples: "This year's apples are generally large and have good fruit shape, and the high-quality fruit rate has increased by 1/3 compared with last year."

The intuitive feeling of scale planting is shocking. On the morning of October 27, at the modern apple planting base of Tongda Agricultural Group in Wanmu Apple Valley, Guandao Town, Qixia City, standing on the viewing platform, neat and uniform fruit trees stood upright in the wind, red Fuji apples hung all over the branches, and the square orchard could not be reached.

"The sugar content of super apples requires about 14, and the sugar content of these apples has reached 15." Yi Mengjin, chairman of Shandong Tongda Modern Agriculture Group, said proudly, "The apples in this base reach 90% above 80# and 60% above 85."

Since 2014, Tongda Agriculture has been committed to building a high-standard modern apple planting base. In 2021, Yi Mengjin will develop a new mode of full nutrition fertilization, which will improve the quality of apples to a new level in only one year. "Qixia municipal government has cooperated with Baiguoyuan, the largest fruit chain organization in China, to set a standard according to the sugar content index. Apples grown according to the' full nutrition' model have reached the level 1 purchase standard and will be 'wrapped up' by Baiguoyuan at a price of 4-4.5 yuan per catty '."

How to promote the large-scale management of orchards? The answer is that Chengfang builds standardized orchards in successive pieces and changes the traditional orchard production management mode into a modern planting mode.

"Based on our geographical advantages, we have built a' Ten Thousand Mu Apple Valley' with eight prefectures as the center, radiating 5 large-scale growers in 11 villages around us, integrating large-scale breeding of virus-free seedlings, improvement and upgrading of elderly orchards, demonstration of modern cultivation modes, and strong chain supplement of circular economy, with a total area of more than 13000 mu." Qixia City Guandao Town Mayor Xie Xiaojun said.

"Ten thousand mu Apple Valley" adopts the mode of "farmers in the leading enterprise base of cooperatives led by Party branches", and carries out large-scale operation of modern cultivation mode with land circulation and shares. Many demonstration models, such as Lvshang, Guomao, Runlin and Shengjie, have emerged to build 7000 mu of modern cultivation demonstration garden, It has accumulated valuable experience for the "three changes" reform of resources into assets, funds into shares and farmers into shareholders.

Qixia City Songshan Street Baoshankou Qilu Spring Apple Production Base, with numerous fruits covered with branches, this base is the origin of astronaut Wang Yaping's "Space Apple.

"Our fruit trees have selected the most sophisticated varieties and are planted in a wide-row and dense planting method to ensure that the fruit trees have sufficient light and strong ventilation." Ding Minfang, the manager of the base, said, "The base is equipped with automatic drip irrigation equipment to realize the integration of water and fertilizer, and strive for fine management. More than 80% of the orchards are apples with a diameter of 80mm, and the largest apples have been planted 1.5kg."

For this year's harvest, Ding Minfang is full of confidence, "an apple tree has more than 300 fruits, and this year is definitely another bumper harvest year."

Where does 85% of the high-quality fruit rate come from? Hao Wenqiang analyzed that the key is to tamp the "planting chain"!

Qixia City aims to move towards the high end of apple quality, and does a good job in three articles: germplasm resources "for new students", old orchard "for new colors" and cultivation mode "for new samples. In terms of "rebirth" of germplasm resources, biological tissue culture technology is used to cultivate virus-free apple dwarf self-rootstock seedlings under aseptic conditions, strengthen the construction of the "breeding push" system of improved varieties, and promote the "early, middle and late, red, yellow and green, sweet and crisp, famous and special" excellent varieties and resistant rootstocks. At present, the new orchard seed penetration rate of more than 95%. In terms of "changing the face" of the old orchard, 143000 mu of the old orchard has been renovated since the beginning of this year, benefiting 110000 fruit farmers and more than 200,000 people. In terms of "changing new samples" of cultivation mode, it aims at the development direction of intelligent orchard: gradually realize the "six unification" of soil remediation, upgrading, planting mode, scientific management, brand building and sales management in the management mode, adopt modern dwarf and intensive cultivation technology in the cultivation mode, and adopt new technologies such as water and fertilizer integration, green prevention and control of diseases and insect pests, and mechanized operation in the production mode, Improve the scientific and technological content of orchard management. At present, 12 "city, county and town" three-level standardized production demonstration parks have been built, covering an area of more than 4300 mu.

multi-channel

The proportion of e-commerce sales is increasing year by year.

These days, Ms. Wang, who works in Chengdu, is very busy. The 5 mu apple orchard taken care of by her parents in Qixia's hometown has entered the picking period. Ms. Wang helps her parents sell through online channels such as WeChat circle of friends. Although the proportion of online sales is not very large, the benefits are considerable.

"I have been helping my family sell apples through online channels for many years. Although I only sell 3000 or 4000 catties online every year, I can sell 1-2 yuan more per catty than traditional channels." Ms. Wang told reporters that online sales have been increasing year by year in recent years, which has something to do with Apple's quality and accumulated customer base. "my orchard earns about 50 thousands or 60 thousands yuan a year. If we all sell online, we can increase a lot of income."

"The proportion of e-commerce sales is increasing year by year." Yan Xuelong told reporters that the sales of apples in Haosheng Fruit Professional Cooperative are mainly supermarkets, accounting for about 60%, sales through e-commerce channels such as US group buying vegetables account for about 30%, and other channels account for 10%. "We started to do e-commerce last year, and online sales have increased by 200 this year." Yan Xuelong said, "Online sales require high quality of apples. In recent years, the quality of Qixia apples is getting better and better, especially this year's quality is even higher, and online sales are expected to achieve new breakthroughs."

At present, e-commerce platform, live delivery and other online marketing models have become the new format and new model of leading consumption.

Yantai Guodu Electronic Commerce Co., Ltd. has opened more than 20 shops, 3 tremolo live shops and 3 Tmall shops. The sales price of a single apple exceeds that of 10 yuan by live broadcast of printed apples, and the sales volume of a single shop exceeds 17000 orders per day, thus continuously helping farmers to increase their income.

"At present, there are more than 4000 online stores in Qixia City, selling 100000 tons of apples online in 2021." Liu Chunyang, director of Qixia Municipal Bureau of Commerce, told reporters, "In 2021, Qixia City successfully applied for a comprehensive demonstration project of national e-commerce in rural areas. We have extended the reach of e-commerce services. At present, 90% of Qixia villages have set up e-commerce service points to help fruit growers realize online sales and reduce the delivery cost of fruit growers by 20%."

It is understood that Qixia City has cooperated with Alibaba, Jingdong, ByteDance and other well-known third-party e-commerce platforms to set up Qixia Fruit Auction Center to broaden Apple's online circulation channels. At present, 4129 Apple e-commerce stores have been established, with annual sales of more than 100000 tons.

How to achieve the annual sales and annual supply of apples? Qixia City supports the development of cold storage, transportation and other related enterprises, the use of cold chain technology for the treatment of picked apples, to ensure that the hardness, moisture, hygiene and other conditions of stored apples in line with international standards, to ensure the quality of apples while extending the apple market supply period. At present, the city has developed more than 800 cold chain enterprises such as cold storage and transportation, including 623 cold air storage and air conditioning storage, with an annual storage capacity of 1.2 million tons.