Small apple brings big profit to small village Hongshuitang

The small village Hongshuitang in Yunnan province recently became a highlight on WeChat, as its specialty apple became ripe with the arrival of October.

Hongshuitang, 26 kilometers away from Lijiang city, is located among mountains at an altitude of 2,560 meters above the sea level. Thanks to the favorable air quality, red soil and adequate sunshine, the village is a prime market for growing peaches and apples. The sale of apples has become a major income for locals.

Even with an ideal natural environment for growing the fruit, the village has gone through some difficulties in making apples its specialty. "We used to plant apple trees in cornfields and many people cut the trees when they failed to grow good apples," said He Lidong, a local villager.

Things started to get better when a Peasants' Cooperative Society was set up in October 2007. Since then, He Xuexue, head of the society, devoted himself to making apples become a local specialty. He researched several apple planting areas and decided to grow apples by making use of technology and eco-models, subsequently created the brand Han Apple. "If you grow the apple in line with its growth cycle, the fruit is sweet, crisp and succulent," explained He.

He Xuexue also concluded that the lack of information and technology is the major reason local development has been hindered. Therefore, an association of 33 experts specializing in apple production technologies was founded on Aug 15, 2011. Under the guidance of the experts, the villagers had developed a circular agriculture development model. In 2015, Hongshuitang's apples were selected as "China's Brand Fruit" at the 13th Chinese Agriculture Trade Fair, defeating more than 1,400 candidate fruits.

Through years of development, the association has accumulated more than 250 households from 18 villages to participate, increasing from the original 100 households. The production area for apples exceeds 4,200 mu (280 hectares). In 2016, solely with the sales of apples, each household made a turnover of more than 100,000 yuan ($15,037.14). The total income of the association exceeded 10 million yuan.

With its delicious taste, Han Apple's fruit becomes increasingly popular among customers, even with its price exceeding 14 yuan per kilogram. To counteract the fairly exorbitant price, the association also signed a cooperation agreement with a logistics company in order to cut cost. He Xuexue says that they plan to sell their apples in supermarkets such as Wal-Mart and Carrefour.