As the year draws to a close, the southern part of Jiangxi is still bathed in the warm winter sun. In the navel orange orchards in Xinfeng County and Nongfu Spring, the yellow navel oranges are gradually ripening and going on the market. Over the years, through the close cooperation of the government, enterprises and farmers, the navel orange industry in Xinfeng County has taken the lead in southern Jiangxi to embark on a path of modern agriculture from selling fresh fruit to selling juice, from fighting alone to win-win cooperation, and from regional brands to product brands.

From regional brands to product brands

Walking into the Nongfu Spring Xinfeng factory, bursts of orange fragrance are refreshing. The automated assembly line is running at full capacity, and navel oranges are seen "galloping", "jumping" and "tumbling" on the assembly line. After screening, sorting, packaging and transportation, they finally enter thousands of households under the name of "17.5°" oranges.

"17.5°" is a fresh fruit brand launched by Nongfu Spring in 2014, and more than 2,000 tons of fresh fruit were sold that year. For the navel orange industry in southern Jiangxi, this marks the transition from the regional brand stage to the product brand era.

"Product brands must be supported by a standardized system. Traditional agriculture has no systematic standards, but standardization is the only way to brand agricultural products." said the head of agricultural technology at Nongfu Spring.

In order to ensure that the skin of each orange is intact, the size is uniform, and the taste is consistent, and to achieve "good fruit for a good price", Nongfu Spring has established four major standard systems around Gannan navel oranges, namely field management standards, picking standards, factory sorting standards, and transportation standards. These four standards cover 34 operating processes, 79 types of control content, and 148 monitoring items.

"Look, this is our optical sorting machine. Each orange that passes through here is photographed 40 times, and the surface defects of the fresh fruit are recorded in all directions without dead angles. We sort the fresh fruit according to the defect area. In addition, we will detect the sugar content and acidity of each orange through near-infrared without damaging the orange skin, and implement fresh fruit sorting and grading through automatic weighing induction intelligent grading and other measures." The head of agricultural technology of Nongfu Spring introduced.

Nowadays, 17.5° fresh fruit can sell more than 30,000 tons a year, and has a large number of loyal consumers. "Not only is it the number one in sales (on JD.com), but every year there are a large number of old customers waiting for 17.5° navel orange fresh fruit to be listed." The head of JD.com Fresh commented.

From selling fresh fruit to selling juice

Superior natural conditions, excellent navel orange varieties, and mature planting technology make Gannan navel oranges have a unique taste and flavor. However, the local government has been considering how to break the situation of only selling fresh fruit, further extend the industrial chain, and increase product added value.

High-quality navel oranges have attracted the attention of leading enterprises. As early as 2006, Nongfu Spring went to Ganzhou to learn about the citrus industry and decided to invest in building a factory. After the factory and equipment were in place, Nongfu Spring discovered that navel oranges were delicious, but they could not be processed and squeezed into juice industrially. It turned out that navel oranges contain a large amount of limonin precursors, which makes navel orange juice sweet and bitter, which is a problem that the juice industry has not solved. "This taught us a lesson. We were thinking of taking shortcuts and picking up ready-made products. But for a physical enterprise, there is no shortcut to success." said Deng Yijun, brand manager of Nongfu Spring agricultural products.

Since then, after years of hard work by R&D personnel, Nongfu Spring has solved the industry problem that navel oranges cannot be squeezed into juice industrially, presided over the formulation of the first domestic navel orange processing technology standard, and launched 17.5°NFC (non-concentrated reduced juice) Newhall orange juice, realizing "high-quality navel oranges, squeezed into high-quality orange juice".

In 2016, the fruit processing factory invested by Nongfu Spring in Xinfeng County, Jiangxi Province was officially put into production. The juice production line of Nongfu Spring Xinfeng Factory consists of liquid treatment workshop, filling workshop, blowing and filling workshop and other workshops, and its production scale ranks among the top in the industry. Taking the bottle blowing equipment as an example, the speed reaches 54,000 bottles/hour, which can provide aseptic production for up to 144 hours.

In the process of fresh fruit processing, Nongfu Spring Xinfeng Factory makes the best use of everything as much as possible. In the process of juicing, orange peel is turned into orange oil, and orange residue and orange peel are turned into feed or natural pectin.

From single-handedly fighting to win-win cooperation

How small farmers can connect with the big market is a common problem faced by my country's agricultural development, even for the navel orange industry that has become a "fruit of wealth" for farmers. Nongfu Spring has changed the current situation of agricultural production increase without income increase, production increase without quality improvement, and price fluctuations in big and small years to a certain extent through the new agricultural and commercial relationship of company + base + farmers; by accelerating the integration of the first, second and third industries, it brings more channels for local fruit farmers to get rich and increase income, and improves the ability of agriculture to resist risks.

"We sign targeted purchase contracts with fruit farmers, provide field management training for fruit farmers, and provide agricultural subsidies to fruit farmers... These systematic measures have mobilized the enthusiasm of fruit farmers and the industry has developed healthily." Deng Yijun introduced. Some farmers said that before Nongfu Spring came, wholesalers changed a batch every year, and sales were not guaranteed. Now such a large factory is built here, which plays a bottoming role in the market, and farmers dare to focus all their energy on planting. In recent years, the scale of orchards cooperating with Nongfu Spring has increased year by year, with an annual growth rate of more than 50%. In Ganzhou, there are more than 3,000 farmers who directly cooperate with Nongfu Spring, and the cooperative orchards are about 100,000 mu. The agricultural subsidies given to fruit farmers have accumulated more than 20 million yuan.

At the same time, in the fight against Huanglongbing, the "natural enemy" of the navel orange industry, Nongfu Spring has also played a leading role in the gathering of resources and synergy. Nongfu Spring has worked with Xiamen University, Zhejiang Agricultural and Forestry University, Nanjing Forestry University and other scientific research institutions to study the prevention and treatment of Huanglongbing.

In terms of industrial integration, the Anxi planting base in Ganzhou, Jiangxi, jointly built by the Xinfeng County Government and Nongfu Spring, has become a national key agricultural demonstration park. The base integrates "planting, production, research, and experience" and is a new landmark of Xinfeng County's tourism industry and a new representative of Gannan navel orange industry and culture.

"Once the entire Gannan navel orange industry chain is completely opened up, it will fundamentally change the history of fruit farmers relying on the weather for their livelihood. Moreover, this model is replicable to a certain extent and is expected to drive more places towards the path of modern agriculture." Deng Yijun said.