Chapter 379 The way out for the apple industry is Xanthoceras sorbifolia

Fang Xiaozhang's PPT project introduction was very successful, and made everyone remember the young president of Jiahe Biochemical.

After a meeting that lasted the whole morning, Guo Yang roughly understood the whole story.

The incident was caused by the apple industry, and the phenomenon of cutting down apple trees to grow Xanthoceras sorbifolia appeared in Qingyang and Pingliang and other places.

These two places and Tianshui are the dominant apple producing areas.

Tianshui's 'Huaniu', Jingning's 'Pingliang Jinguo' and 'Longyuanhong', and Qingyang's 'Chicheng' are all well-known apple brands.

The selling price has been the highest in the country over the years.

Among them, Tianshui is the first batch of apple production bases built in the 50s and has been listed as a national high-quality apple export and foreign exchange earning base by multiple ministries of agriculture, commerce, and finance.

Tianshui's 'Huaniu' is also the first Apple brand to open its doors to the international market.

After more than 50 years of cultivation, Tianshui has become the largest production base of Marshal apples in my country.

Qingyang and Pingliang began to develop the apple industry on a large scale in the 70s. Over the past 30 years, the level of industrial management has gradually improved.

But prices have a balance point, and once the balance is broken, it will be very troublesome.

Shaanxi apples used to sell for five or six yuan per pound, but eventually they were sold for a few cents per pound, so this is a very dangerous thing.

In 1997, the domestic apple industry reached its previous peak, with the planting area reaching 4700 million acres, and the market began to reverse rapidly.

The market for apples that can't be sold even at a few cents per pound has arrived.

A large number of orchards have been abandoned and fruit farmers have cut down trees.

In just a few years, the apple-growing area of ​​4700 million acres was reduced to only 2600 million acres, which ushered in a new bull market in the apple market in 2007.

A fruit farmer in Luochuan, Yan'an, Shaanxi Province sold his 11-acre apple orchard for 106000 yuan that year, which became a hot topic in the industry.

This once again stimulated fruit farmers to plant trees in large numbers.

The price of apple seedlings increased from 1 to 2 yuan per plant to 6 to 10 yuan per plant within one year.

As a result, the company was plunged into the financial crisis. The Apple market was in a slump, prices dropped and sales were sluggish, and the company even issued IOUs after purchasing the products.

The farmers who were chasing the rising and falling prices were so angry that they started to let the apples run wild and neglected the maintenance of the newly planted apple orchards.

After the local government vigorously promoted the apple crown project this year, there were cases of pulling up seedlings and destroying orchards, and even cutting down mature apple trees.

This made Ma Fengwang extremely sad when he learned about the situation.

The apple acreage can no longer be reduced, and a market reversal is imminent. What is the difference between cutting down trees at this time and cutting losses before the bull market comes?
So Ma Fengwang ran around everywhere, but the local government was very ambiguous about this matter.

The apple planting area in Gansu Province is 420 million mu, ranking fourth in the country, after Shaanxi, Shandong and Hebei.

The output ranks seventh in the country, lower than the six provinces of Shandong, Shaanxi, Henan, Hebei, Shanxi and Liaoning.

But what is the output value?

Only 29 billion.

As for Jiahe’s expectations for the Xanthoceras sorbifolia industry, it is a tens-billion-dollar industry, or even a hundreds-billion-dollar industry!
For local governments, this is an easy multiple-choice question, and voting with their feet will produce the same result.

Ma Fengwang believes that the local government has been fooled by Jiahe.

So we started to work our way up.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Jiahe are birds of a feather, so they can only focus on science and technology and forestry. It just so happens that the domestic bioenergy industry has suffered setbacks in the past two years.

The relevant departments and scientific research institutions have long been confused about Jiahe's upstream development.

Finally they came together to have this meeting.

"From the perspective of national policy, a major prerequisite for developing energy crops is that they cannot compete with food crops for land."

"Sweet sorghum is the main crop promoted by our energy center. It is known as a highly efficient "solar energy converter" and can be grown in arid and saline-alkali areas..."

The meeting was drawing to a close and it was clear that things had strayed a bit from the topic.

After Jing Haichun from the Energy Center and the Biomass Energy Department of the State Forestry Administration realized that there was no hope of stopping Jiahe, their focus shifted to recommending existing results.

Ma Fengwang could only watch with complicated emotion.

Guo Yang has also started to lose focus. Sweet sorghum is indeed good, but Jiahe has already chosen the direction of woody oil crops.

With the support from the province and the city, it is completely impossible to stop it with the people in front of us.

But you can't completely ignore it, it's okay to listen to it.

Jiahe also wants to continue developing Xanthoceras sorbifolia and Leprosy trees next year!

If Jiahe can take this opportunity to promote Xanthoceras sorbifolia and Jatropha curcas on a large scale across the country again, it will be a strategic victory for Jiahe.

After listening to Jing Haichun and Liu Gongshe's long speeches for a while, Guo Yang saw that the time was almost up, so he said:
"A mature energy crop is grown. Those who grow grass say grass is good, those who grow trees say trees are good, and those who grow algae say algae has a bright future...

Everyone has their own opinions, but when it comes to actually using it for energy development, it is discovered that there is no large-scale planting and processing.

Therefore, practice is the criterion for testing truth.

Of the three major cutting-edge technologies in the world today, we are already lagging behind in biotechnology.

If we continue to follow the routine of breeding, pilot testing, data accumulation and promotion, the gap will not narrow but widen. Jiahe is willing to take a gamble and believe in its own varieties. "

Having said that, Guo Yang looked at the provincial leaders, as well as the representatives from Jiuquan, Qingyang, Pingliang and others.

"The province is willing to take a chance with Jiahe because it believes that Jiahe's varieties will be successful again."

Provincial leaders took the lead in applauding.

Qin Lijun, leaders of Qingyang and Pingliang also applauded, and the applause became increasingly enthusiastic.

For Qin Lijun and others, they have witnessed too many miracles in Jiahe.

From Alfalfa No. 1 improving saline-alkali land to Tianyu No. 1 ushering in a new era of corn, the Gobi Desert has also become an oasis.

Several industries worth tens of billions or even hundreds of billions of yuan have also been born in the Hexi Corridor.

Although it is difficult to build a trillion-level industry from scratch, because it is starting from scratch, once it succeeds, the imagination of the future will be vast.

Xiao Le and others from the ministry could not help but be infected by this atmosphere and started to applaud.

Guo Yang smiled and stood up. "Let's go, leaders. Jiahe has prepared a simple meal in the small square in the Gobi Desert."

"Let's go. I've heard that Jiahe's chef's cooking skills are amazing. Today is our chance to try some."

Xiao Le, who came to Jiahe for the first time, was very active and quickly put away his notebook.

Qin Lijun said: "Jiahe's advantage lies in its first-class ingredients, and even its seasonings are not available outside."

Xiao Le smiled and said, "You make me impatient."

Another leader joked, "Well done, Xiao Le, you were silent during the meeting, but when we talked about food, you got excited."

Led by Fang Xiaozhang and Zhang Jing, a group of people walked out chatting and laughing.

Ma Fengwang slowly came to the end and said, "Mr. Guo, does Jiahe really have the confidence to make the Xanthoceras sorbifolia industry a success?"

Guo Yang pondered and said, "I made it very clear at the meeting."

"It's a good thing that it succeeded," Ma Fengwang said with a smile. "There are too few means to alleviate poverty in the western region. The 1997 million mu of apple planting area in 4700 is still shocking now."

"Then Professor Ma must prepare in advance to adjust the regional planning of the apple industry."

"I'll have to prepare when I get back this time."

4700 million acres of apples, a height that will not be reached in the next ten years.

But Guo Yang also knew that it was in the past two years that the apple industry entered a crazy bull market again. Within seven or eight years, the apple planting area reached 3500 million acres.

Oversupply reappeared.

This is the law of the market, and the domestic fruit industry has always been in a state of disorder.

He remembered another story about Haisheng Group.

As production capacity cannot be fully released, Haisheng Group, which has already become the world's number one in concentrated apple juice sales, has begun to invest heavily in the planting field.

The world's most advanced planting model has been introduced, and tens of thousands of acres of high-end-looking apple bases have been built in major apple producing areas across the country.

Fruit trees are climbing on the supports, machinery is running between the rows, water and fertilizer are dripping along the pipes... The onlookers are stunned. Guo Yang, who saw this kind of base for the first time, was also amazed.

At that time, Guo Yang and Hai Sheng believed that with the help of mechanized troops, they should be able to easily defeat the traditional planting model of the "Tubalu".

Experts generally agree with this view.

Experts also believe that the suitable apple-growing areas at low altitudes will be eliminated by the superior apple-growing areas at high altitudes.

But the reality is not that simple.

Lacking a better means of making a living, most farmers are unwilling to accept the fate that experts have assigned to their apples.

An old farmer from Liquan, Shaanxi said in an interview: "I will never cut down trees even if they pay 5 cents per pound!"

Because there is nothing else to grow in his place.

Compared with Haisheng's mechanized and low-labor operation, the farmers' own labor costs are negligible.

What's more, there are the high initial costs of building the park, purchasing machinery, maintenance costs, and personnel management costs.

Perhaps it was because he saw the old farmer's determination, or perhaps Haisheng remembered the words "caught in the vast ocean of people's war."

Haisheng has suspended its expansion efforts.

But in the end, it could not change the outcome of long-term arrears of employees' wages.

Precisely because he is familiar with the development process of Haisheng Group, Guo Yang is unwilling to invest in a large-scale fruit tree planting base.

Ma Fengwang said that it was a good thing that Xanthoceras sorbifolia could succeed, and Guo Yang believed that he was sincere.

The farmers were upset about cutting down trees so they started to cause trouble for Jiahe;
After being forcibly persuaded by Jiahe, they were able to quickly recognize and acknowledge the role of the Xanthoceras sorbifolia industry.

Ma Fengwang is not a bad person. He is just fulfilling his responsibilities as the chief expert of the Apple industry.

The success of Xanthoceras sorbifolia will not only boost the development of the bioenergy industry, but also break the market for disorderly apple planting in the domestic apple industry.

"I heard that Jiahe's apple orchard will bear fruit this year?"

"Yes." Guo Yang smiled and said, "We will stick to the green route and certify organic food in the future."

“The production of organic apples is very small worldwide, but the demand is very high.”

Ma Fengwang said: "Shaanxi has certified more than 300 million mu of green apple bases, and there are very few organic bases."

Guo Yang also did not forget to advertise for Quanwang, "Jiahe's biological pesticides, natural enemy insects and organic fertilizers are more effective in organic base certification. Professor, you can give it a try."

"Well, I will."

Ma Fengwang nodded, "I'll go to Jiahe's apple base someday to take a look, as an apology for what happened this time."

"It's not that troublesome. The professor means well."

"needs."

Ma Fengwang is very confident in his skills.

He is from Shandong Province. He has been dealing with apples since he was a child and has been studying apples all his life. Basically, wherever he goes, people invite him to guide industry planning and orchard production.

This time, I took the initiative to go to Jiahe’s orchard for guidance, which was considered as giving enough face.

But Guo Yang was also very confident because he had the experience of building so many bases in his previous life.

The construction standards of Jiahe's citrus and apple bases are unprecedented in the country at that time.

Although Haisheng was eventually defeated by the vast ocean of people's war, the advanced nature of its planting model is beyond doubt.

Times have also changed. Now is the Apple industry's rising period as it is about to emerge from the trough.

The production capacity is not saturated.

It must have given Professor Ma a little shock.

Guo Yang and Ma Fengwang, the chief expert in the apple industry, talked for a while before going downstairs.

By the time the two got downstairs, the others had already walked in groups of three or four into the path leading to the Gobi Square.

However, one person also fell behind. Guo Yang recalled that this was researcher Chen Zhi from the China Academy of Science and Technology Development.

Seeing the two of them, Chen Zhi came over.

"Mr. Guo, Agricultural Economics Magazine has an interview invitation and would like to invite you to attend."

Seeing Guo Yang's confusion, Chen Zhi explained: "Agricultural Economics is the original Hua Xia Xing Huo. It was revised this year. I want to write an article about Jiahe in the first issue.

Or maybe Mr. Guo has the time and energy, and Agricultural Economics would also like to invite you to write an article.”

Guo Yang finally understood.

"Hua Xia Xinghuo" is now called "Agricultural Economics". It is a magazine under the supervision of the Ministry of Science and Technology and sponsored by the Rural Science and Technology Development Center. It was founded in 1990.

Our mission is to focus on solving major problems in Chinese agriculture.

It is aimed at the 'big agricultural capital' class.

Such as science and technology, finance, agriculture, commerce, development and reform, the State Grain Administration, the Quality Inspection Administration, etc.

As well as provincial and agriculture-related leaders, the top leaders of cities and agricultural officials, entrepreneurs, and elites.

Many important officials of the PBOC are themselves important special authors of agricultural economics magazines.

In the high-end agricultural financial field it targets, "Agricultural Economics" possesses two major characteristics: "unique" and "first".

Its influence at the official level is extremely strong.

Hua Xia Xing Huo had invited Guo Yang to interview in the past, but Guo Yang rejected them all.

This time he didn't intend to refuse again, but wanted to take this opportunity to talk about bioenergy.

In the past two years, there has been a lot of concern in China about woody energy crops, and people are generally not optimistic about them.

He chose to sing the opposite tune.

He even wanted to express his vision for Hongqi River through this platform.

This will attract the attention of the entire domestic agricultural community.

Once Jiahe's energy project is a huge success, the Hongqi River phased project can be launched.

After thinking quickly in his mind for a while, Guo Yang said, "I have time recently, I am willing to accept interview invitations and provide articles."

"Great."

Chen Zhi was quite excited. “When it was still Hua Xia Xing Huo, the magazine wanted to publish an article about domestic and international grain traders.”

Guo Yang smiled. He hoped that the editor-in-chief of "Agricultural Economics" would be more sensible and stop focusing on the affairs of grain merchants.

The simple lunch was a great pleasure for both the host and the guests.

Jiahe’s ingredients have never disappointed.

After the meal, the group sat together and chatted for a while, then set off for the Xanthoceras sorbifolia planting site.

During the trip, we passed by an alfalfa base.

It was the time when grass was growing and birds were singing, and the endless alfalfa meadows were rolling with purple clouds and green waves, and flowers were in full bloom.

Liu Gongshe, who is engaged in molecular breeding research of sheepgrass, was deeply moved.

"I don't know whether I am lucky or unlucky to see such a species."

"Of course it's luck." Jing Haichun said without hesitation, "Professor Weng and Alfalfa Agriculture have taken the country a big step forward in natural grassland restoration and artificial grassland construction.

Now the research and application of grass science in China has reached the world's top level."

Liu Gongshe nodded, "Jiahe is indeed unique in breeding!"

The newly built Xanthoceras sorbifolia base did not disappoint. From a distance, the saplings were neatly arranged, and their feathery leaves trembled slightly in the gentle breeze.

One can't help but imagine how prosperous it will be when tens of millions of acres of Xanthoceras sorbifolia flowers cover the mountains and fields.

(End of this chapter)