Firms grow links with Yunnan farmers

COMPANIES based in Jiading have joined with farmers in southwest China’s Yunnan Province to introduce their fruits and vegetables to Shanghai and other areas with the support of the Jiading government.

Song Shengli, founder of Shanghai Baitkey Agriculture Technology Co, visited Yao’an County in Yunnan four times this year, aiming to help local farmers plant organic vegetables.

At Guantun Town, Song invested more than 10 million yuan (US$1.47 million) to set up steel-framed greenhouses, a refrigeration house and workshops to process salad vegetables.

Nearly 200,000 square meters of land will be a demonstration area for planting vegetables.

“We hope to help farmers in Yunnan to learn the skills so that they can plant the vegetables by themselves, and we will help them sell with a refrigeration logistics system,” Song said.

Song set up several vegetable bases in Luxi County in Yunnan several years ago.

“In Shanghai we cannot produce highquality vegetables from June to September as the weather is too hot, but here with an altitude of over 2,000 meters above sea level, the quality of the vegetables is extremely good,” Song said.

Jiading supports companies like Song’s to develop organic vegetable products in Yunnan in areas rich in resources but lacking capital, technology and marketing, according to Jiading officials.

Fruit dealer Jia Yuhai plans to send a group of technicians to Yunnan’s Chuxiong, guiding local farmers to plant more fruit and help them find distribution channels in Shanghai.

He found that grapes there were ready for market 20 days earlier than in Jiading.