First secretary helps bring village specialties to bigger markets

Ahead of the Mid-Autumn Festival, Zhang Zifeng, a first secretary sent by the Linyi municipal government to Dongzhuchen village in Huangshanpu town, Yishui county, brought local specialties — crispy pears, cloth shoes, pancakes and wheat-flavored biscuits — to a community in Linyi in East China's Shandong province. The products sold out quickly.

Zhang, an official with the Linyi market regulator, took up the post in May. He found that a number of quality local products were good and affordable but remained little known outside the village because of a lack of business licenses, sales channels and branding. Within three to four months, he drew on his professional expertise to get village products into supermarkets and onto online platforms.

At a village pancake shop, he guided the owner through standardization — installing mouse guards and insect-killing lamps, requiring masks at work and daily cleaning and disinfection — and helped the shop obtain its business license, health permits and food operation permits. He then photographed the products, designed packaging, named the shop and registered a trademark. The pancakes now supply two supermarket chains steadily and are sold online at more than 300 jin (150 kilograms) a day, more than double the previous level.

Retired teacher Liu Hongguo, who grows organic crispy pears with his wife, had 4,000 jin left unsold last year. Zhang designed gift boxes and promotional slogans, bought 40 boxes himself to promote them, and helped sell out more than 5,000 jin. Liu plans to triple his planting area.

A cloth shoe workshop in the village, which employs 60 people, has been upgraded from a self-employed business to a company and now sells 5,000 pairs a day through e-commerce platforms and partnerships, providing auxiliary processing work for more than 200 nearby villagers.

Most recently, Zhang invited experts to test the village's groundwater, which was confirmed to be high-quality mineral water — a specialty he now hopes to bring to an even bigger market.

"What matters more is that a first secretary must understand local conditions and public sentiment, stay grounded, and develop rural industries with distinctive local features," said Wang Wei, head of the seventh group of first secretaries sent to Yishui county.

Editor：韩蒙蒙