Tongnan lemon "going abroad" record

Guangming Daily reporter Zhang Guosheng

Between 37°C and 17°C in Chongqing, there is only one autumn rain. At the 10,000-acre lemon base in Baizi Town, Tongnan District, during the cold dew season, the fragrance of lemons is refreshing, and the emerald green branches and golden fruits constitute a pleasing harvest scene.

In Xiaoling Village, Baizi Town, the freshly picked lemons were loaded into a collection truck next to the orchard by a basket, and another truck was pulled to Chongqing Huida Lemon Technology Group Co., Ltd. in Tongnan High-tech Zone. After rigorous testing and precise dispensing in standardized factories, some of these lemon fresh fruits will be sent directly to overseas customers from here. "The two are sent to Singapore today, next to Russia and several other countries." Dai Qiongying, the leader of the packaging team, pointed to several containers and said.

According to Wang Guolong, manager of the international trade department of Huida lemon, Tongnan lemons have matured successively since September, and before the National Day holiday, the company can collect 800 tons of fresh fruits per day and export 300 tons of fresh fruits, and after entering the peak picking in October and November, the number of fruits harvested and exported every day will double.

Located at 30 degrees north latitude, Tongnan has a humid subtropical monsoon climate with abundant heat and abundant rainfall, acidic soil and convenient irrigation conditions, which is very suitable for lemon growth. In 2007, Tongnan began to take advantage of this unique advantage to build lemon planting bases in some townships. Unexpectedly, after the lemon tree hung fruit, the sales channel became a big problem.

The largest market for lemons is overseas, and how to expand overseas markets is the biggest challenge facing industrial development. Xu Xiaoling, deputy general manager of Huida Lemon, said that the company once tried to go abroad alone, and as a result, the first cross-border cooperation lost money.

With a single product, a single channel, and a long cross-border transportation cycle, the lemon industry has encountered three "roadblocks", prompting Tongnan to accelerate the structural reform of the agricultural supply side and gradually build a whole industrial chain integrating production, scientific research, processing, sales, demonstration and promotion and service. In recent years, Tongnan has successfully established the National Modern Agriculture (Lemon) Industrial Park, the National Lemon Production Comprehensive Standardization Demonstration Zone, the first batch of National Rural Industrial Integration Development Demonstration Park, the National Priority Agricultural Industry Chain Development and Innovation Demonstration Zone, the National Export Food and Agricultural Product Quality and Safety Demonstration Zone, and the National Foreign Trade Transformation and Upgrading Base. Tongnan lemon was identified as a national famous and excellent agricultural product and was included in the national ecological origin product protection list.

The country's new round of open development has smoothed the way for Tongnan lemons to "go out". As an important connection point between the "Belt and Road" and the Yangtze River Economic Belt, Chongqing's location advantage has been further highlighted with the in-depth implementation of the "Belt and Road", and the internationalization road of Tongnan Lemon has also been continuously extended with the "Belt and Road". In 2017, the first international road direct car carrying lemons departed from Tongnan to Russia. This year, the new western land and sea corridor was officially opened, shortening the transportation distance between Chongqing and Southeast Asian countries to more than 10 days, and also bringing Tongnan lemons to more countries and regions along the route.

At the Tongnan International Lemon Festival held in 2019, The Indonesian company Mandili ordered a one-time order of 12 million US dollars of Tongnan lemons and also established a long-term supply relationship with Tongnan. Magusim, general manager of the company, said that lemons are the "necessities" of Indonesians, and the quality of Tongnan lemons is very good, because the logistics time was too long to reach the Indonesian market, and it will be able to achieve a win-win situation through long-term cooperation in the future. David Adamia, sales director of Russia Green Planet Co., Ltd., signed a lemon purchase order of 600 million yuan with several leading agricultural enterprises in Tongnan Province. It used to take at least 40 days to travel from Tongnan to Moscow, but lemons have a maximum shelf life of only 1 month. Now the newly picked lemons take the China-Europe train, depart from Chongqing, arrive in Russia in about 8 days, and enter the EU market in about 13 days. According to David Adamia, the Russian "Food City" market is one of the largest distribution centers for agricultural and sideline products in Europe, and the quality of Tongnan lemons is very good, and it is particularly popular there.

In 2019, the "Western China-ASEAN" agricultural trade service platform with Chongqing and Singapore as dual hubs was completed and put into operation. The service platform relies on the China-Singapore strategic interconnection demonstration project to enrich the export path of Tongnan Lemon. In 2020, Tongnan lemon was exported directly to Singapore for the first time, completing the first order for chongqing fresh fruit direct sales in Singapore. Tongnan lemons were previously exported through entrepot trade, and it was the first time that such independent exports and direct sales by road-sea intermodal transport were exported. The relevant person in charge of the Tongnan District Commission of Commerce said that export direct sales can greatly save time and logistics costs, and also marks the improvement of the whole industrial chain of Tongnan lemons from planting, processing to trade and logistics.

By the end of 2020, the planting area of Tongnan lemon has exceeded 320,000 mu, with an annual output of 280,000 tons of fresh fruits, and more than 350 kinds of lemon deep processing products in 5 categories such as beverages, green food, beauty and skin care products, biomedicine and health care products have been successfully developed. Tongnan lemon has been exported to more than 30 countries and regions, and the annual export volume accounts for more than half of the total export volume of lemons in the country. Chongqing Tongnan has become one of the world's top three lemon producing areas with the same name as California in the United States and Sicily in Italy.

Guangming Daily (October 18, 2021, 10th edition)

Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily