Tuanlin town's late-season peaches turn timing into profit

As October arrives and the fresh peach market nears its end, the golden autumn honey peach, the latest-ripening fresh peach variety grown in Tuanlin town, Junan county, is only now entering its season.

The town's late-ripening peaches did not always sell well. Years ago, most late peach planting in the town was scattered among individual households, with mixed varieties and crude management, leaving sales fragmented. Growers were either squeezed by middlemen or dumped their fruit at low prices, so the advantage of a late-ripening variety failed to translate into a good price.

The turning point came with a change in industrial organization. The town set aside the traditional approach of competing for early harvests and scale, focused on the golden autumn honey peach and, under the leadership of Party organizations, had village Party branches establish planting cooperatives. Households pooled fragmented orchard resources into a close-knit industrial community through land equity arrangements.

The cooperatives follow a "five unified" model: unified variety planning, technical management, green pest control, grading and sorting, and brand sales. Farmers receive dividends from land equity, wages from work and income from fruit sales, while village collectives earn operating income.

Cui Enxue, a farmer and cooperative member, said that previously growing peaches relied on old experience, with harvests subject to weather and prices left to luck. Joining the cooperative means technicians often teach management on site, peaches are graded and sold at higher prices, and he can earn wages at the cooperative in his spare time, making income much more stable. The cooperative has taken in more than 200 nearby households, raising income per mu by more than 6,000 yuan ($845).

The town does not blindly expand scale but works on quality and timing. It arranges early, mid and late-ripening varieties in sequence, focuses on the late-ripening golden autumn honey peach to avoid the peak of concentrated fresh peach supply, and moves agricultural technicians to the frontline, bringing technical guidance on pruning, water and fertilizer and green pest control to the fields.

The town has also extended its industry chain, building a sales matrix that combines offline buyer matching, direct supply orders from supermarkets, livestream sales and on-site picking experiences, while developing agritourism around spring blossom viewing and autumn fruit picking.

Editor：韩蒙蒙