Lanzhou Gaolan soft pear "Oriental Ice Cream"

New Gansu Gansu Economic Daily reporter Yu Shuhong

In early summer, the reporter walked into the "world's first ancient pear garden" in Shichuan Town, Gaolan County, and the towering pear trees of the 10,000-mu pear garden were like a "green dragon" coiled on the bank of the Yellow River. The tea garden nestled in the pear orchard is bustling and packed. A cup of three bubbles, a soft pear, has become a must-have for tourists.

"If it had been a few years ago, it would have been difficult to eat soft pears in winter in the tea garden in the summer." Tao Shiwei, secretary of the Shangche Village Branch of Shichuan Town, said that now we are making a big soft pear industry brand, building cold storage, changing the limitations of only winter and spring sales in the past, and you can eat delicious soft pears all year round.

Gaolan soft pear cultivation has a long history, more than 9,000 pear trees over 100 years old, and many pear trees have grown for 400 years. In autumn, the fruit is green and yellow, slightly sour, hidden until the end of winter and early spring, soft and black, and the flesh is pulpy, sweet as honey. Put the "brown knot" into the water, wait for the fruit to melt and take out, a package of sugary honey juice in the mouth, the drink is fragrant, refreshing, called "Oriental Ice Cream". The so-called "thin skin a bag of water, turn the meat into a lump of mud." As Mr. Yu Youren wrote, "The soft pear in the ice and snow, the first strange in the melon and fruit city".

Gaolan soft pear, in 2020, was selected as a "sweet" special agricultural product brand.

"The red face of the tree is not taken, and the fragrance is waiting to be turned into mud." Drink a bowl of soft juice, do not ask the doctor to prescribe medicine. In 2018, Aunt Wei Yuhong of taoyuan Society in Shangche Village sang the soft pear brand with her own song on CCTV. Since then, Shichuan's "brown knots" have become well-known and have become "special special" in the fruit.

Small soft child, big industry. To make the soft pear industry bigger, we must first protect the ancient pear garden. In recent years, Gaolan County has increased the protection and development of pear orchards in Shichuan Town, set up special agencies, formulated development plans and management measures for the protection and development of ancient pear gardens, and scientifically and rationally utilized the resources of ancient pear trees through thorough documentation, information collection, and maintenance and rejuvenation, inherited and carried forward the farming culture of ancient pear gardens, and made the unique and precious pear gardens rejuvenate, year after year, fruitful, and became a pillar industry for rural revitalization.

In Shichuan, there is a guy named Wei Yongbo, who returned to his hometown in 2011 and jointly initiated with 105 people in the same village to raise 9 million yuan to establish the Gaolan Bailu Tong melon fruit professional cooperative in Changpo Village, determined to become bigger and stronger soft pear brand.

Today, the 700-ton cold storage built by Wei Yongbo has solved the "bottleneck" of cold storage and extended sales of soft pears. He constantly renovated the pattern around the soft pear, in addition to researching the vacuum packaging jar, he also developed the soft pear juice and enlarged the fruit industry chain.

After Wei Yongbo registered the "Little Wei Ge" soft pear trademark, he went south to the north, participated in the exhibition, and opened up sales channels in the south.

"Now soft pear sales, year by year better, especially in the southern cities are very popular, the annual sales reached 10 million yuan." Wei Yongbo said that after Gaolan soft pear became a "sweet" brand, its popularity became higher and higher, and foreign merchants signed contracts.

In Gaolan, there are many trademarks like "Little Wei Ge" soft pear, such as Shichuan soft pear, Deyuan fruit, Henggu, Tianzhao style and so on. In 2015, Gaolan Soft Pear obtained the Geographical Indication Certification of Agricultural Products of the Ministry of Agriculture.

"Promote new technologies such as biological pest control, strengthen the green prevention and control of diseases and insect pests in the core area of the ancient pear garden; promote the fruit bagging technology of 1,000 mu, guide farmers to build 10 new small cold storage, continue to implement the agricultural industry upgrading project, and enhance the soft pear brand." Xu Xiaohong, deputy secretary of the party committee of Shichuan Town, Gaolan County, said.

While enlarging and strengthening the soft pear brand, Gaolan County excavates the potential from the aspects of product packaging, such as appearance, history, humanities and regions, develops products such as Sanpaotai and soft pear juice, and enhances the added value of fruits; relying on the county, town and village three-level e-commerce service platform, vigorously develop e-commerce, support the online store of characteristic agricultural products, and broaden the sales channels of agricultural products; adopt a market-oriented operation mode, cooperate with local fruit and vegetable professional cooperatives, and on the basis of cultivating characteristic agricultural products, continuously expand the collective economic income of the village, and drive the masses to increase their income and become rich.

Last year, Shichuan Industrial Park in Gaolan County purchased and sold 1.8 million catties of soft pears, purchased at a price of 2 yuan per kilogram higher than the market price, increasing profits by 3.6 million yuan, and radiation drove 1,500 rural households to increase their income by more than 850 yuan. The three cooperatives developed derivative products such as soft pear juice, soft pear three forts, pear tea, fructose and so on, generating about 12 million yuan in revenue. The annual rental income of cold storage in Shichuan Industrial Park is about 720,000 yuan, the collective economic income of each administrative village increases by more than 25,000 yuan per year, and the average dividend of 499 households with a record card is 750 yuan.

Every year, Gaolan County organizes cooperatives to participate in various national agricultural product promotion meetings and large-scale exhibitions such as the Lan Fair, tourism products expo, and "Belt and Road" cultural tourism exchange activities, and continuously enhance the influence and market awareness of products. In particular, some agricultural professional cooperatives have participated in the central "Avenue of Stars", "Distant Home", Hunan Satellite TV "Every Day Upward" and other programs, increasing the publicity and promotion efforts, and soft pears are famous overseas.

Gaolan Soft Pear is a "Chinese time-honored brand" and was named "China's First Important Agricultural Cultural Heritage" by the Ministry of Agriculture. In 2018, it won the gold medal of "China Brand Trademark Expo".

At present, Gaolan Soft Pear has gone out of the province and not only established sales outlets in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Lijiang, Yunnan, Xi'an, Ningxia Shapotou and other places, but also broadened online sales channels and established online stores. Gaolan soft pear has become a business card of Gaolan and even Gansu.