"What fruit can be sold all year round?"
In 2016, after working in Guangdong for several years, 26-year-old He Zhong learned to read the No. 1 Central Document. The bold words "accelerating the modernization of agriculture" were quickly translated into the above questions in his mind.
This knee-jerk reaction stems from his birth in Guangxi, where the aroma of fruit wafts through the air.
jackfruit! The search results that jumped out of this moment were like a kind of fate guide, leading him with surging blood, resolutely running to Hainan, the home of strange tropical fruits. Before that, he didn't even know that Hainan was one of the main producers of jackfruit.
This year, Guo Fusheng, a 26-year-old from Jiangxi, ate jackfruit for the first time in his life. The shape of the big winter melon and the serrated skin made him refuse at first, but the thick, dry flesh grabbed his taste buds enthusiastically, making him completely unable to stop his mouth. At that time, he could not distinguish the difference between jackfruit and durian and durian honey, only that it was a high-end fruit, "a small box of dozens of pieces in the supermarket, the average person can not afford to eat."
▲Jackfruit just plucked from the branches, white pectin gushing out. Photography | Hao Man
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, accompanied by a song "Please Come to the End of the World", the gold rush dream attracted "100,000 talents to Hainan". When the time entered the fourth five years of the 21st century, the development of e-commerce in the mainland stirred up the enthusiastic and brave Hainan, and a new generation of "houlang" began to try to sell fruits on the Internet.
In 2014, the online sales of Hainan agricultural products jumped from 600 million yuan a year ago to 6 billion yuan, achieving an amazing breakthrough of "ten times a year". This is also an important beginning for the "tropical fruit king" jackfruit to gradually go out of the circle.
(Subtitle) The most "spelled" fruit
High-end fruit?
From the moment he stepped into Hainan Island, He Zhongzheng found that this was one of the most profound misunderstandings of jackfruit among other people.
This "willingness" is planted on the sidewalk, in the courtyard, very simple, the seed is thrown wherever it is thrown, and it can thrive without careful care. According to the "Chronicle of Hainan Province and Agriculture", in the early days of liberation, jackfruit was mainly distributed in red land areas such as Qiongshan, Wenchang, Tunchang, Chengmai, And Ding'an, and now it has spread throughout the island, from 16 meters above sea level to more than 1600 meters, everywhere.
The average annual temperature of 22-27 °C, the annual sunshine of 1750-2650 hours, the illumination rate of 50%-60%, the unique climate and temperature conditions, for the development of tropical fruit agriculture in Hainan has created unique conditions. As early as the end of the Qing Dynasty, there were wild jackfruit on Hainan Island, but there was a lack of garden cultivation, the variety was simple, and the yield was very low; until the beginning of the last century, jackfruit became one of the cultivated cash crops. However, due to the traffic blockage, it is difficult for vegetables and fruits to enter and exit the island, and the fruits of Qiongdao are mainly self-sold.
Today, the jackfruit commonly grown in Hainan is malaysia's No. 1 variety, which was successfully introduced from Malaysia and Thailand by the state-owned Western Union Farm in Danzhou, Hainan in 1999, with the advantages of "fast results and high efficiency", and can be planted for 18 months to hang fruit in all seasons.
This desperate long momentum shocked He Zhongzheng. "I've never seen a fruit more fighting than Hainan jackfruit!" In other provinces, the two ripe fruits a year have been considered "diligent", but the rough and high-yield jackfruit can be used all year round, hanging or 30 or 40 pounds of "fruit king", hanging five or six at a time, "not eating at all".
▲Hainan jackfruit has the auspicious meaning of "many children and many blessings" because of its characteristics of fast growth, easy growth and abundant production. Photography | Hao Man
Many locals say, "Jackfruit has big ambitions and comes from the inside out." "Needless to say, the flesh of the fruit can be fried and eaten; the seeds are as large as olives, and can be stewed in soup; and the wood of the tree is hard, and the termites are not close, which is a good material for building fine buildings and making furniture."
"It's a pity that I fought so hard, but I didn't sell it." When He Zhongzheng first arrived in Hainan, jackfruit was still mainly sold offline, some large fruits were sold to the whole country, after processing in the supermarket, the flesh was peeled off, loaded into fruit boxes, marked with a high price, placed in a delicate display freezer; most of the small fruits were processed as dried jackfruit, or directly fed to livestock. "In addition to bananas, monkeys love jackfruit the most."
This, in turn, is related to the personality of jackfruit. The huge body shape determines that it is born as a "social" fruit, which needs to be eaten together; moreover, the unrecognized jackfruit, once shown with its true appearance, can dissuade many "early adopters". But the regularly peeled jackfruit flesh, golden and yellow chengcheng, looks high-end, the price is also high-end.
Not only that. At that time, the first kilometer of jackfruit was also blocked. Lao Shen, a fruit merchant who went to Hainan to dig the market in 2015, said that due to the poor flow of information, as long as jackfruit is imported into the market from the ground, the difference is at least 0.5 yuan a catty.
"We want the whole country to eat jackfruit!" This was the "ambition" of many new farmers at that time.
(Subtitle) "Sweet" Big Battle
At the beginning of 2018, Guo Fusheng sniffed the smell of jackfruit and turned to Hainan. At that time, he had already operated many e-commerce projects.
He partnered with He Zhongzheng, one on the pipeline and one under the line; one in charge of operation and one responsible for the supply of goods. In terms of body shape, they are thin and fat, and the only thing they have in common is that the skin is not white. "We vividly interpreted the growth process of jackfruit, first drawn strips, then fat, and finally the fruit body is soft and the skin darkens, that is ripe, haha."
The middle of August is one of the seasons when jackfruit is on the market in large quantities. On a clear morning, those eight ripe jackfruits are slashed by a long cutting knife and fall into the waiting arms of the growers, and then are neatly stacked on the side of the road, waiting for the big trucks that come to collect the goods. In the markets of many places in Qiongbei, villagers selling jackfruit are some shoulders, some set up stalls, and set up a long battle in front of the purchase station at the entrance of the village.
▲ Jackfruit shaped like tripe is crowded and stacked together, waiting to get on the car. Photography | Hao Man
This is the starting point of jackfruit's upward journey, and the next road is full of challenges. In the past five years, the fruit merchants who survived in Hainan have experienced at least three major wars.
First, the battle typhoon. Typhoons are jackfruit's "natural enemies" and can cause devastating damage to them. In order to keep the fruit trees, the growers have to cut down the branches; they need a year or two of rest to re-hang the fruit.
"There was a typhoon in the first two years, and the cargo ship was suspended without prior notice. Several of our truckloads of goods were backlogged at the dock for three days, and the guests found a large amount of rot after receiving them. What impressed Lao Shen was that after a series of after-sales complaint calls directly made several customer service customers cry.
The second war, war logistics. As a ripening fruit, jackfruit cannot fly, only by boat. But in the past, the cars and horses were slow, the cargo ships were few, the logistics were expensive, and the freight per kilogram was five; and the transportation was not guaranteed, and the warehouse was often pressed, and the after-sales situation was heart-wrenching. "In the first two years, we generally pulled it to Guangxi and shipped from there, saving 0.6 yuan per kilogram." Guo Fusheng said.
In recent years, with the continuous development of e-commerce in Hainan and the continuous improvement of local logistics facilities, Hainan jackfruit finally does not have to give up the near and far, and goes to Guangxi to "seek delivery". According to Guo Fusheng, "After the fruit volume of Hainan Island came up in the past two years, the price of express delivery has dropped by as much as 60%. ”
The third battle, the industry melee, the competition is the cost performance, behind which is the comprehensive operation ability of the new farmers. "For e-commerce, jackfruit is a very challenging fruit. In summer, I am afraid that the fruit will be ripe; in winter, I am afraid of encountering sick fruit; and I will be worried about rotten fruit on rainy days. Resources, customer service, operation, warehousing four major plates, as long as one is not well controlled, full of losses. Old Shen said.
He Zhongzheng and Guo Fusheng's battlefield is in Pinduoduo, the country's largest uplink platform for agricultural products. After the "thousand hammers and hundreds of hammers" of the operation model, they currently adopt the origin direct hair mode: on the one hand, they collect massive "sweet" demand through the platform; on the other hand, they cooperate with more than 700 fruit farmers in Sanya, Danzhou, Wanning, Wenchang and other places, harvest in the early morning, the fruit does not land, directly on the assembly line, and the express delivery is sent away that night.
▲ On the morning of August 1, in a base in Penglai Town, Wenchang City, fruit growers were busy harvesting ripe jackfruit. Photography | Hao Man
"This model, because the path is short, the storage can save two points (per kilogram, the same below), and the after-sales savings of fifty cents; after the single volume is increased, the express delivery saves two points." That's how the price is cut out. He Zhongzheng said that in the next step, they intend to underwrite orchards and further consolidate the advantages of the resource sector.
Jackfruit free
In the vast world of tropical agriculture in Hainan, young new farmers are cutting through thorns and thorns, and the common result is that jackfruit, which was once a quiet corner, is accelerating its penetration into the prosperous domestic market.
"In the first two years, our monthly order volume was usually 100,000 plus; this year, when the single volume was booming, there were 10,000 orders a day, and even if the orders were compressed, there were 2,000-3,000 orders/day." Guo Fusheng believes that this year's jackfruit has been selling hot, there is no off-season, "peak orders exceed 200,000 orders per month, compared with the same period last year doubled more than that."
On August 17, Pinduoduo officially opened the third agricultural goods festival, He Zhongzheng learned that this year, Pinduoduo will carry out quality upgrades on the basis of the previous two agricultural goods festivals, focusing on the "tens of billions of subsidies" to the national high-quality agricultural production areas and geographical indication agricultural products to over-subsidize, to help major agricultural production areas to create high-quality production area brands, improve the visibility of geographical indication agricultural products.
"This is a good opportunity for Hainan jackfruit", after his first successful registration, he has dispatched a monthly supply of 6 million kilograms in Danzhou, Wenchang and other places to support the upcoming three-month peak season.
Mr. Pan, a farmer who has been growing jackfruit since his father's generation, said that in the past two years, Hainan has not been affected by the typhoon, and jackfruit has been harvested; and the price has been higher and higher before, and farmers have also rushed to plant this year. "All of this determines that this year is the year of jackfruit."
▲ Wind and rain are smooth and the scale of planting is expanded, this year will be the big year of Hainan jackfruit. Photography | Hao Man
Dr. Su Lanxi of the Institute of Spices and Beverages of the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences introduced in his main paper "Research Status and Development Trend of Polo Honey Cultivation" that at present, china's jackfruit cultivation area exceeds 10,000 hectares, most of which are in Hainan, and has formed large-scale commercial cultivation, with an annual output of more than 150,000 tons and an annual output value of about 2 billion yuan.
After the production rises, the price of jackfruit is also becoming more and more affordable. In the first two years, a "sweet bomb" was often hundreds of yuan; today, a single net fruit of more than 20 kilograms, the subsidy price of the Pinduoduo Agricultural Goods Festival is less than 50 yuan. More and more people have achieved jackfruit freedom. This has also led more people to try this "southern fruit".
"Jackfruit is a fruit with a particularly high return rate, one situation is that children like to eat; the other is its own social attributes, colleagues and friends can take turns to buy and eat." Guo Fusheng said.
Hainan jackfruit out of the circle, Yongxing lychee, Sanya mango, Chengmaifu orange, Baoting rambutan... Will these be far away? With the support of the free trade port policy, taking the e-commerce express, Hainan's tropical fruits are making our lives more and more sweet.