Shiliuyun-Xinjiang Daily (Reporters Guo Ling, Fan Qiongyan) news: “In the past, in order to sell peaches, I would park my car on the side of the road, lay a sheet to set up a stall, and turn the speaker volume up to the maximum. On the first day, I would shout 10 yuan for 1 kilogram, 8 yuan on the second day, 5 yuan, 3 yuan, or even 2 yuan on the days after... You have to hurry to reduce the price and sell them off before they go bad.”　

On August 28, 2023, ,the rain aroused fruit aroma in the peach orchard in Kekedala City, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Zhang Zhenhua, with a basket in his hand, picking peaches while recalling the story of the past, “Now, we do not have to worry about sales. We can sell them domestically or export them according to our own decisions. It’s up to us!”

Photo shows Zhang Zhenhua picks peaches while introducing the sales condition in Kekedala City, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Photo by Shiliuyun-Xinjiang Daily/ Guo Ling)

Right now, as they are the last batch of late-ripening peaches, Zhang Zhenhua began to notify the farmers to prepare for the picking. He and 90 local farmers have set up two cooperatives and have more than 2,000 mu of orchards.

"At first, I thought that selling fruits abroad was too cumbersome, and what if there was a delay and the fruits went bad? Later, I found I was overthinking." Zhang Zhenhua said that farmers are now only responsible for the quality of fruits, and do not have to worry about anything else.

A peach tree used to produce 80 kilograms of peaches, large and small, and merchants would pick the good ones, leaving the rest for farmers to sell in other ways.

Nowadays, in order to meet the market demand, farmers have started to improve the quality of the fruits by controlling the yield of each tree to about 40 kg. The Horgos Customs also regularly carries out pesticide residue testing on outbound fruit and vegetable production areas within its jurisdiction and organizes on-site teaching to help the farmers master the use of pesticides, fruit and vegetable maintenance and other skills.

“In addition to ensuring the taste, the appearance of the fruits should also be appealing. For example, the diameter of a peach should be at least 6 cm. Now, we use lesser fertilizer, and the selling price of the fruits has increased several times.” Zhang Zhenhua said with a smile that they do not have to worry about sales or selling prices for there is a “big tree” to fall back on.

The "big tree" Zhang Zhenhua refers to is the Horgos Jin Yi International Trade (Group) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Jin Yi Group"), which is more than a 20-minute drive away from his orchard.

Over the years, Jin Yi Group has been exporting Xinjiang fruits and vegetables to the Central Asian market, joining hands with domestic powerful e-commerce enterprises to build the Jin Yi Fruit and Vegetable Sales e-commerce platform, constantly broadening the sales channels and opening up the domestic and international fruit and vegetable sales markets, and cooperating with many cooperatives around the area, driving more than 3,000 farmers to increase their income.

"When it comes to the harvest season, Jin Yi Group arranges lorries to collect peaches for 14 yuan per kilogram at least." Zhang Zhenhua brought the reporters all the way to the Jin Yi Group's customs supervision warehouse, where the trucks lined up in front of the entrance. The customs supervision warehouse, covering an area of 400 mu, is equipped with a parking area, fresh keeping storehouse, general merchandise warehouse, and so on.

Photo shows a staff member moves boxes of fruits into containers at the customs supervision warehouse of the Jin Yi Group in Kekedala City, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Photo by Shiliuyun-Xinjiang Daily/Guo Ling)

In front of a row of fresh keeping storehouses, that are regulated according to the appropriate temperature of the fruit varieties, workers move boxes of fruits to the parked freight trucks.

“Many trucks have been waiting at the door for a long time, and every day, we export 500 tons of fruits and vegetables.” Jiang Congjie, deputy general manager of Jin Yi Group, introduced that after the company was established in 2010, it basically realized the cold-chain transport of fresh fruits and vegetables, and mainly engaged in the business of green agricultural products planting base, warehousing and logistics, and export sales.

"In fact, the joint pursuit of the Belt and Road Initiative is the 'big tree' that farmers and we have been relying on." Jiang Congjie said that over the years, with the further promotion of the Belt and Road Initiative, foreign trade has been flourishing, and the business of the company has been growing.

Photo shows a staff member presents the peaches that have just been put into the fresh keeping storehouse to the reporters in Kekedala City, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Photo by Shiliuyun-Xinjiang Daily/Guo Ling)

In 2018, the Horgos Southern Joint Inspection Zone—the sixth generation state gateway, officially opened, and the "Shuangxi" Highway (Western Europe - Western China) came into use.

"The improvement and upgrading of port infrastructure has a profound impact on our enterprises." Yu Chengzhong, chairman of Jin Yi Group, introduced that through the "Shuangxi" Highway, the journey from Horgos to Almaty, Kazakhstan, has been shortened by nearly 2 hours, and the opening of a green channel for fast customs clearance of agricultural and sideline products has further shortened the export time. By declaring customs in the morning and clearing customs at noon, the goods can reach the Almaty market in the afternoon, which greatly improves the competitiveness of enterprises in the international market.

In 2019, approved by Customs, Jin Yi Group became the only designated supervisory site for imported fruits in Horgos. The imported specialty fruits mainly include cherries from Uzbekistan and melons from Kyrgyzstan, and they are sold not only in Xinjiang, but also in other provinces in China.

In recent years, Jin Yi Group has established several sales outlets in five Central Asian countries and Russia, and set up 160,000 mu of export fruit and vegetable production cooperative bases across the country. With the customs supervision warehouse as the support platform, its export trade volume in 2021 and 2022 both reached 683 million US dollars.

"The farmers who were worried about the risk of exporting fruit at first are seeking cooperation now." Zhang Zhenhua said, "This year, there are many farmers who want to join our cooperative. Even if they join the cooperative, farmers still have the right to choose their own sales channels. The cooperative just gives them an additional option."

(A written permission shall be obtained for reprinting, excerpting, copying and mirroring of the contents published on this website. Unauthorized aforementioned act shall be deemed an infringement, of which the actor shall be held accountable under the law.)