Summer is the melon and fruit season. Recently, Gu Ailing has often seen advertisements endorsing Jiapei kiwi fruit in various channels. New Zealand Jiapei’s kiwi fruit is sold all over the world. Another common fruit giant is American dule, which mainly sells bananas and pineapples. They all regard China as their most important market. Last year, Jiapei’s sales in Greater China reached 910million New Zealand dollars, equivalent to nearly 4billion yuan.
Kiwi fruit is actually the “gilded” name of kiwi fruit. China is the hometown of kiwi fruit. There are as many as 400 kinds of kiwi fruit. Kiwi seeds in New Zealand were cultivated after they were taken away from China more than 100 years ago. Now they are mainly turning away from customers in the Chinese market and can earn billions from China every year.
In fact, not only kiwi fruit, it is difficult to find a brand with weight in the field of Chinese fruit, let alone marketing in the world. Internet giants have been calling for “transforming agriculture”. In fact, there has not been much change in fruit brands. Chu Cheng, jiawo and other brands with a little popularity are also far less influential than before.
China’s fruit has no brand, which is not commensurate with a large agricultural country with advantaged natural resources, a large number of hardworking farmers and a 1.23 trillion fruit retail market.
The reason seems to be a problem that is not difficult to explore, but if you really go deep into it, you will find that it is a complex systematic problem.
We have mined quite a lot of valuable information from a number of practitioners in the fruit industry, which has been analyzed and sorted into today’s article.
The article will tell you why China can’t produce such fruit giants as Jiapei and dule, why the capital will often encounter obstacles after entering agriculture, how China’s fruit seeds are stuck, and how important the intellectual property rights of seeds are.
Stolen kiwi fruit
Although as the origin of kiwi fruit, according to historical records, the domesticated kiwi fruit began in the Tang Dynasty 1300 years ago, the popularity of this small fruit in China and even in the world has little to do with the domestic Kiwi industry.
Before the 1980s, Chinese people always regarded it as a wild fruit. People are generally lack of interest in this furry, gray green and hard fruit. In 1978, the year of reform and opening up, the total cultivated area of kiwi fruit in China was less than 1 hectare, i.e. 15 mu.
After the reform and opening up, the domestic forestry department advocated the development of diversified economy. In addition to afforestation and logging, the planting and promotion of fruit trees were put on the agenda. The success story of kiwi fruit with the foreign name “kiwi fruit” was introduced into China, which made the government aware of the commercial value of “Maotao” in the mountains, and the resource development, research and large-scale cultivation of kiwi fruit arose after hindsight.
Henan, Anhui, Sichuan, Shaanxi and other production areas suitable for kiwi fruit have sprung up. Kiwi fruit planting has become a common practice for a time, but it is mostly used as raw materials for wine making. The value of kiwi fruit as a commercial fruit has not been accepted by most people.
Father Xiong studied farming at school in his early years, and accidentally studied horticulture. In school, he heard about the kiwi fruit variety widely recognized in the international market, namely “Hayward” improved and bred by New Zealand.
After taking part in the work in the mid-1980s, Xiong dad was assigned to Tiantai Mountain Forest Farm under the Municipal Forestry Bureau. At the same time, the Ministry of forestry vigorously promoted economic fruit trees and arranged him to go to Henan to participate in the local Kiwi planting training class.
After listening to the training class for a few days, with his professional understanding, Xiong dad figured out the gap between Kiwi planting in China and modern agriculture. Although there were all influential old technicians in the industry who were very familiar with wild kiwi fruit, from the commercial perspective of cash crops, their management of orchards was too extensive.
According to Xiong, Hayward was bred from the kiwi varieties in the Yangtze River Basin, but at that time, the traditional Kiwi production areas in China, such as Shaanxi and Henan, still used the traditional cultivation and planting mode, just simply transplanted the local wild kiwi, the quality was very unstable, and the fruit did not have a relatively standardized shape, so he dared to take it to the exhibition after following his own heart.
In this way, we have an excellent time and place, and it is man-made that matters. As far as the current situation is concerned, kiwi fruit planting should be easy to produce scientific research results. As soon as he returned to his hometown of Guangyuan, Xiong dad, who was full of energy, applied for a 100 mu local Kiwi planting project. Later, it was expanded to 400 mu. He designed and built it by himself. Using local wild varieties, he bred and grafted some undefined varieties for survey and research.
But the young man’s warm blood could not beat the reality after all.
The difficult conditions on the mountain are nothing. The application and approval of early-stage funds at all levels, the Jerry built orchard in the medium term, and both technology and construction should be paid attention to, so that the young bear father can’t bear the disturbance.
The straw that eventually crushed him was the theft of the observation point.
Approaching the mature stage of kiwi fruit, Papa Xiong went to observe it every other day with great joy. One day, he suddenly found that five of the seven observation points set up in the field had disappeared. It is not the “stealing” of three melons and two jujubes, but the “forcible robbing” of cutting the branches, dragging them down, and then picking up the fruits.
After a whole year of hard work, he was ruined by the “sickle of the local thief”. Dad Xiong was disheartened and said goodbye to the kiwi fruit industry.
Now, recalling the past, he couldn’t help sighing that “he was too young at that time, and his anti Strike ability was poor.”
“The sickle of the soil thief” not only ruined Xiong dad’s Kiwi business, but also hindered the development of the domestic Kiwi industry in the later days. This is another afterword.
Kiwi fruit “invades” China
China opened a new era of kiwi fruit in 2000.
In 2001, kiwi fruit from Jiapei, New Zealand formally “invaded” China under the name of “kiwi fruit”. At that time, kiwi fruit was still a very marginal fruit in China. Even ten years later, Yu Xuedong sent the “LiuTao” kiwi fruit to the Ministry of agriculture when it was on the market. Many officials were still at a loss about how to eat it.
Back at the beginning of Jiapei’s entry into China, it directly targeted the high-end, discussed the novel sales form of individual sales, and the high price of more than 10 yuan each, which soon attracted the attention of the first group of consumers. Good quality assurance and hard-working marketing merger have made Jiapei skillful in opening up the territory in the domestic market.
The quality assurance lies in that Jiapei kiwi fruit can be bought blindly. The size, appearance and sweetness are standardized. There is no need to wait for it. You can eat it as you buy it.
Kiwi fruit is a kind of late ripening fruit. It can’t be eaten directly after being picked from a tree. Generally, kiwi fruit bought from fruit stalls are mostly hard and need to be artificially ripened. For example, kiwi fruit and mature apples or bananas are put into sealed bags and wait for several days to check the ripening status in time until they become slightly soft.
This is an era when the aroma of wine is also afraid of the depth of the alley. Jiapei knows his way well.
As soon as it entered China, Jiapei continuously invested a large amount of budget to cultivate the Chinese market – trial eating is an important means of promotion.
Dan mafieson, Global CEO of Jiapei, once revealed that “in China, 30% to 40% of the market budget is used for people to try in stores.”
According to the report of interface news in 2019, Jiapei has 190million New Zealand dollars (about 820million yuan) for marketing every year. In Jiapei’s view, such a budget proportion is very important and worthwhile, especially as a relatively emerging product, the investment in the education market is essential.
With the continuous expansion of the domestic Kiwi market, the total amount of imported kiwi is rising.
Jiangshijie, general manager of Jiapei Greater China, once revealed in reviewing the development of the Chinese market that when Jiapei first launched sales in China, the sales in China accounted for less than 2% of the global sales; In 2009, the sales in China reached NZ $50million, accounting for nearly 5% of the global sales; In 2018, Jiapei’s sales revenue in China was NZ $500million, which has surpassed Japan to become Jiapei’s largest market in the world.
With this category alone, China can create billions of foreign exchange for New Zealand and other countries every year.
Monopoly of patented varieties
It is probably a well-known fact that Jiapei is a leading brand in the global kiwi fruit market. But if you don’t know it, many people will think that Jiapei is a kiwi fruit planting and production company in New Zealand. In fact, Jiapei is just a marketing company entrusted to kiwi fruit farmers in New Zealand.
It is not only a marketing company, but also a marketing company of the national team.
After the establishment of Jiapei in 1997, the New Zealand government passed relevant laws and regulations to stipulate that fruit farmers are not allowed to sell kiwi fruit to the international market without authorization, and it will be illegal for any fruit farmer to export and sell kiwi fruit in his own name.
Not only fruit farmers, in fact, the kiwi export right of the whole New Zealand only belongs to Jiapei. Enza is another famous fruit company in New Zealand. The apple produced by Enza is the first choice for many middle-class families to buy apples. Looking at the worldwide sales of kiwi fruit in Changhong, Enza also wants to take a share. For the export right of kiwi fruit in New Zealand, Enza has filed a lawsuit with the New Zealand government every year and is still in a fierce battle so far.
Behind Jiapei are more than 2000 Kiwi growers in New Zealand who have passed the certification of global good agricultural practices. They are a complete community of interests. Highly integrated management is distributed in every stage of R & D, planting, procurement and sales. Hundreds of steps of screening ensure the consistent quality of each box or even each kiwi fruit.
In addition, Jiapei has also purchased excellent kiwi fruit all over the world.
Kiwi fruit is a seasonal fruit, mainly concentrated in summer and autumn from April to October. Jiapei’s global layout enables them to supply fresh and delicious kiwi fruit at the right time and place for a long time. For example, France and Italy in the northern hemisphere can make up for the kiwi window in New Zealand in the Southern Hemisphere from October to next April.
The monopoly of patent varieties gives Jiapei a firm pricing power in the market.
Jiapei first sold green fruit in China. As the name suggests, it is the fruit of green meat. The category is Hayward; Then, the sun golden fruit G3, a fruit with yellow flesh, was launched at a higher price. During the Spring Festival of the year of the tiger, the price of 12 Jiapei Jingdong self operated flagship stores was 299 yuan, which was still in short supply; After the golden fruit, Jiapei continued to develop the red flesh Kiwi ruby. The outermost flesh is light red, which becomes more obvious in the middle, with a pleasant berry aftertaste.
Jiapei owns the patent variety rights of the above three Kiwi varieties, that is to say, planting without its authorization is illegal, and Jiapei has the right to file a legal lawsuit.
In fact, Jiapei did appeal against a kiwi fruit grower who secretly brought back the vine of its golden fruit tree to China and illegally spread it.
“The scythe of the soil thief” has no space-time and national boundaries.
Lenovo once made a failed counterattack
Many insiders disdain Jiapei’s lawsuit. If we want to trace back to the source, the reason why New Zealand has a booming Kiwi industry now is not because Isabel frazeli, a female teacher, waved the “sickle of a local thief” in Yichang, Hubei Province in 1903 when she visited her sister who was a missionary in China?
This is a true story. When Isabel returned to New Zealand, she took Kiwi seeds from China and gave them to her relatives and friends. One of them came to Allison, a breeding expert, after many trials. In 1910, kiwi fruit finally succeeded in New Zealand.
The North Island of New Zealand is located in the temperate zone of the southern hemisphere, and the climatic conditions are very suitable for planting kiwi fruit. As more and more New Zealand farmers went into the pit, by 1952, New Zealand, a vast and sparsely populated country, had been unable to consume kiwi fruit internally and began to export. Later, Jiapei was established for the purpose of anti-dumping and safeguarding the interests of domestic kiwi fruit farmers.
In yuxuedong’s view, it is difficult to ignore the impact of climate and environment in the research of agriculture, forestry and fruit trees. After several visits to New Zealand and comparing with several traditional main kiwi fruit producing areas in China, he found that New Zealand is an island country, and the soil formed by volcanic ash is deep and rich in mineral elements, which is very conducive to the fleshy roots of kiwi fruit to absorb nutrients. In addition, the Shanghai oceanic monsoon climate has inherent advantages in high yield and fruit quality.
Yuxuedong, a classmate of Xiong’s father, entered the research of kiwi fruit industry in China ten years later than Xiong’s father, and is in a good time.
After Xiong dad failed to explore kiwi fruit in the late 1980s, Chengdu did not end its investment in this industry. At the end of the 1990s, kiwi fruit was still a hard nut to crack, and it was actively developed as an emerging industry.
For this reason, the varieties introduced in Chengdu, the farming methods and technical standards adopted are more advanced than those in other old production areas in China, and the specific cultivation measures and even the shape of trees have begun to be standardized and improved.
At that time, Yu Xuedong’s Zhongxin company was the largest and standardized kiwi fruit enterprise in China, with 10000 mu of planting bases in Pujiang County and Guangyuan County, Sichuan Province. Taking advantage of the rapid development of kiwi fruit industry in China, the company invested 6million yuan to purchase a patented variety from Wuhan Institute of Botany under the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It tastes very similar to Jiapei’s sunshine golden fruit G3, which is yellow flesh fruit.
That’s better than selling at Jiapei’s price. The wholesale price of three kilogram box of yellow flesh kiwi and Jiapei golden fruit is between 180 and 240 yuan, while the price of Zhongxin company fluctuates between 120 and 160 yuan.
Yuxuedong recalled that in the hottest days, the output value of the kiwi fruit planting base of the company could reach more than 30000 yuan per mu. He lamented that “the benefits are similar to planting opium.”
In 2021, one of the most news about internet giants was “going to the ground”. Alibaba, pinduoduo, JD and other Internet giants accelerated their actions in the agricultural and rural areas. In fact, Lenovo started its layout in the agricultural field as early as ten years ago.
In order to save time, Lenovo mainly focuses on mergers and acquisitions. Its agricultural division, the predecessor of “jiawo”, has successively acquired Qingdao Wolin Blueberry Fruit Industry Co., Ltd., the largest blueberry industry chain enterprise in China, and Sichuan Zhongxin Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd., a kiwi variety with independent intellectual property rights.
Lenovo’s ambition to enter agriculture this time can be seen in the naming of Sino Singapore kiwi – “LiuTao”. Although it is rumored that it is not Liu Chuanzhi’s original intention, he even dislikes such a promotion method. It is said that it is the marketing scheme of “Chu orange LiuTao” brokered by media E-commerce.
Lenovo clearly put forward in the corporate culture publicity and education after the completion of M & A that a good product should start from planting. LiuTao is positioned as a high-end product, about 32 yuan per kilogram, which is close to the average high price of 38 yuan per kilogram of Jiapei. The price of common yellow heart kiwi fruit on the market is only about 7 yuan.
Speaking of this, yuxuedong is somewhat sad. Capital’s entry into the agricultural market was originally a win-win thing. Rich and willing to invest a lot of money to buy good patented varieties, but it was impossible to prevent the “sickle of local thieves”. In addition to the 10000 mu planting base under jiawo banner, Pujiang had 100000 Mu Kiwi planting bases, of which 90000 Mu were planted by ordinary people outside.
Stealing a variety will soon bring a valuable variety to the street. It is not only kiwi fruit, but also all fruits.
Every time a new variety appears in the agricultural field, once it is affirmed by the market, there will always be a period of huge profits for the whole people to follow suit. At this stage, quality is not the most important. If we hurry to get resources and plant them first, we can make quick money whether it is good or not. Around 2012, kiwi fruit in China was in such a bonus period.
Kiwi fruit in New Zealand has been monopolized by the national team and has been developing continuously. After decades, it still has a reasonable planting area of more than 200000 mu. Due to different national conditions, it is difficult to copy Jiapei’s model. When Yu Xuedong first studied kiwi fruit, the total planting area in China was less than million mu. Now it has grown to 4million mu.
Scarce agricultural products are more expensive than natural products. Capacity expansion is not a problem, but disorderly expansion out of the control of brand owners is the origin of the disaster.
The planting area of kiwi fruit in China is about 180000 hectares, far more than 13500 hectares in New Zealand, but the total output value only accounts for 2% of the world’s kiwi fruit industry. What does it mean? It’s a bargain.
The influx of a large number of uneven kiwifruit soon destroyed the original strong market price, and the flooding of fruit gradually made the market aware. From the early stage of making money with goods to the stage of recognizing goods only when they are planted well, the market gradually became more and more popular. Small farmers can not match big manufacturers in terms of quality control. More and more people are selling, and the price has plummeted.
In addition, Lenovo’s own focus is not on planting and operation, but on trade. It is willing to be a dealer and has no focus on building its own sales network and channels.
After a year or two of such operation, Lenovo felt that the planting cost was too high, so it scattered the 10000 mu base to farmers for contract management. The standardized management is no longer, and the unified quality is gone. The “LiuTao” who initially wanted to make a big move is gradually disappearing in the market.
At first, jiawo, which just released LiuTao, still has a certain bargaining power in the market, and is now on the wane.
Flooding upon listing
There is a kind of red heart kiwi fruit called “Hongyang” in China. The fruit core is radial red, the pulp is still green, and the entrance is very sweet. It is widely planted in Dujiangyan, Cangxi and Guangyuan areas of Sichuan. This is a high-quality Kiwi variety jointly bred by Sichuan Institute of natural resources and Sichuan Cangxi County Bureau of agriculture as early as 1997.
In order to encourage the transformation of scientific research achievements into commercial production, Sichuan Institute of natural resources tried to transfer the variety right of Hongyang. Hong Kong Risheng company took a fancy to the development prospect of Hongyang and bought all the variety rights.
To some extent, this deal is very unjust. Due to the weak awareness of plant IP in China, the “sickle of the soil thief” is everywhere. Hongyang is rampant in China without restriction, becoming one of the main varieties of kiwi in China, accounting for about 60% of the kiwi area planted in Sichuan.
Even if it is put into law, no local government is willing to wipe out the local Hongyang industry and take a fooling attitude of turning a blind eye.
Some people even think that the domestic seed law is suspected of leaving a back door for farmers as a buffer zone for farmers to keep their own seeds. Farmers’ self planting and sales do not constitute infringement. How many acres are self planting? This is a vague word that cannot be identified. Nisheng can only be filed and registered in the world outside China, which restricts the export of Hongyang in the mainland.
Yanzhiqiang, President of Dujiangyan Kiwi Fruit Association, once contacted Hong Kong Risheng about the 66million yuan order that a Dutch enterprise wanted to finalize, hoping to obtain the variety right of Hongyang, but was rejected.
In desperation, he contacted various intellectual property centers and relevant lawyers. The export of tens of millions of agricultural products is a big list, and even got the attention of the municipal Party committee and the municipal government. Therefore, a symposium was held to discuss solutions. The variety right with weak awareness among Chinese people is a hard standard in foreign countries, and all Hongyang export orders can only be stranded. So far, it is still a problem.
Yuxuedong suffered a great loss in the lack of protection of new plant varieties in China. Once LiuTao was listed, he immediately sent a letter to major supermarkets across the country, reminding them that this is a patented variety, and they would be sued if they were sold casually. Only foreign supermarkets such as Wal Mart and Carrefour gave serious replies, while domestic supermarkets ignored them and continued to sell.
He is a little worried, which will affect the enthusiasm of research and development institutions for new varieties, and will also affect the transformation of scientific research results into real productivity.
Since you can steal it, why should you spend a lot of money on it?
Fruit gets stuck in the neck is not sensational
Under the normal process, farmers need to purchase seedlings. Excellent seedlings determine the quality of fruit.
In the past, in order to have enough to eat, China mainly focused its breeding on field crops. Now we have changed from full to good. The state has paid more attention to fruits with high economic and nutritional value.
With the increasing awareness of intellectual property rights and seed IP, all countries are strictly guarding against the “sickle of local thieves”. Foreign countries have strict control over the export and introduction of domestic fine varieties, and it is more and more difficult to “steal”.
Domestic strawberry varieties were first introduced from Japan, and the original varieties have not been found. After generations of planting, the disease resistance and yield of strawberry decreased.
Last year, Japan began to implement the revised draft of the seed and seedling law, listing nearly 2000 seeds prohibited from being brought out of Japan. The violator can be sentenced to 10 years at most, which indicates that it is more difficult to bring back advanced and excellent strawberry seeds from Japan in the future, and must be officially authorized by the owner of the intellectual property rights of the seeds.
There is no time to delay the risk of choking. How to make domestic farmers have better strawberry resources, many scientific research institutions are trying to solve the problem of seed resource spectrum through scientific and technological means.
The fruit’s neck is not sensational. For a long time, foreign blueberries were blocked from China, and money could not buy seeds. Blueberry has a history of 100 years abroad, and has been studied very well in the United States, Canada and other places. Domestic blueberry planting is basically the purchase of foreign seedlings for breeding, and its own innovation is not very competitive.
But kiwi fruit is different. This wild fruit originated in China has a history of thousands of years. More importantly, according to historical records, there are more than 400 kinds of kiwi fruit in China, which is China’s unique provenance advantage.
Isabel of New Zealand is not the only one who takes away Kiwi “kindling” from China, but there is an inexhaustible vast spectrum of resources in the vast mountains. No matter how many Prometheus are good at intellectual property, it is difficult to steal all the “sacred fire”.
In fact, the observation and collection of all kiwifruit species in China are ongoing. The Beilin Agricultural Research Institute of Dandong City and the Chinese Academy of sciences have been looking for more wild kiwi resources for subsequent breeding research and development for more than a decade. At present, more than 200 kinds of records have been recorded, which are divided into six categories and still need long-term continuous observation.
Among the existing observation varieties, Beilin Agricultural Research Institute selected and bred the soft jujube kiwifruit Danyang 133.
The biggest feature of soft jujube kiwi fruit different from traditional varieties is that it can be ripe and eaten directly from the tree. In the 15 years since Wang Yong developed Danyang 133 in Beilin, he has been in the front line, continuously improved and eliminated from the three directions of planting bottleneck, economic benefit and nutritional value, and formulated a set of planting standards that can be strictly classified and implemented.
According to Wang Yong’s research, the best-selling OTC drug in Shenyang is Kaiselu. Because of the high degree of aging and limited gastrointestinal digestive function, people buy Kaiselu for defecation. It is found that the soft jujube kiwi fruit has a miraculous effect on constipation, but it is only limited to the soft jujube kiwi fruit produced in the cold north. The nutritional effects of the same variety vary greatly in different latitudes, climates and soils.
This makes Wang Yong firm that even if it is a similar variety, it should also formulate different regional signs and planting standards, and take the road of fine management. At present, they are starting to select Danyang 133, which has a shorter dormancy period and is more suitable for planting in the south.
It is difficult for retail investors to make money in fruit planting
Xuzhou Fangfang has purchased the seedlings of soft jujube kiwi fruit through Wang Yong all the year round. It has large-scale planting in its own orchard, produces and sells its own products. It operates fourorfive wechat groups full of people. Its customers cover several nearby communities. It delivers directly according to orders, eliminating the middleman link.
In addition to the soft jujube kiwi fruit, the orchard is also planted with blueberries and strawberries. The staggering growth seasons of different fruits just ensure that the orchard can have economic output all year round.
Gannan’s generosity has not been studied from the perspective of diversified operation. The most famous navel orange in the region is planted by almost every household. It is very primitive from planting to purchase. There is no company to contract. In the season, fruit sellers will come to buy it at a bargain price according to its quality.
Almost every household has ten mu of land on the mountain. It is not much. It seems that no one is counting on planting navel oranges alone to feed their family. Young people are even less interested in this, and most of them go to work in big cities.
Dafang thinks so too. “He only grows oranges at home. He can only earn income in November when he has a bumper harvest. He can find a job at random when he goes out. The average salary is five to eightthousand yuan a month, which is much better than planting trees.”
In addition to his normal work, he resells some second-hand computer accessories on salted fish. Every November, he puts on the link of his own navel orange and receives some loose orders, but he doesn’t want to sell much. In the whole village, only the older generation planted fruit trees, and the earliest Newhall navel orange variety has been used.
The initial investment of fruit is no more than that of ordinary small businesses. Renting land is a lot of money. Repairing the land until it is suitable for planting is a lot of money. It needs money to buy seedlings.
The most important thing is that the economic return will not be achieved in a year after the seedlings are planted. Ten year old trees, like navel oranges, will not bear fruit until the fourth year. They are still rare and can not be scaled up. They will not be on the right track until the fifth or sixth year. This is still a smooth situation. In case of poor seedlings or insect pests, the whole orchard will be wasted, and even the soil will have to be reprocessed.
Therefore, most local people hold the Buddhist mentality of relying on the mountains. Even if they know that there are new varieties for R & D and upgrading, they are conservative and stable. They do not want to easily try unknown categories or categories that have not been widely recognized by the market, so as to avoid taking additional risks.
The factors that affect fruit prices are nothing more than size, appearance and taste. Fine management can naturally select relatively standardized fruits. Unlike the high-end Chu oranges, there are special machines on the assembly line to screen out oranges with similar appearance and size. Family or individual planting boats are easy to turn around, and it is easy to obtain good quality control with more effort.
The price of navel orange in the market is about 7 yuan per kilogram, while the price purchased by fruit traders from fruit farmers will not exceed 3 yuan. At first glance, it seems like double profits, but it’s not. Because the purchase from fruit farmers is all inclusive, no matter how big or small, as long as it is not bad; The navel oranges that can appear in the market, whether in e-commerce or offline stores, have been screened manually. For example, those that are too small or severely scratched on the skin have been sent to juicing.
It seems that there is no link in the category of navel orange that can really make money. At least in the small cities of Gannan, the planting is mainly for retail investors, lacking professional and large-scale operation and management. In a bad year, you can sell it at a lower price. Every family can plant it. Unless you plant one in ten thousand, fruit farmers have no bargaining power.
Jiapei really wins in organizing fruit farmers
Kiwi fruit industry in New Zealand has also experienced the original situation of many fruits in China: there are many exporters, the competition is loose and disorderly, each acts in its own way, and the prices are pressed against each other. The fruit itself is not stable enough, and the prices fluctuate greatly.
After the anti-dumping investigation by the United States in 1988, the kiwi fruit industry in New Zealand was on the verge of extinction. The country has established the “kiwi fruit marketing Bureau of New Zealand” to integrate the export channel into a unified sales export, and launched “Zespri” (Jiapei) as the only brand name.
When it comes to Jiapei, most people praise its textbook level quality control and marketing, but the organizational ability of Kiwi marketing Bureau in New Zealand is the cornerstone of its success.
More than 2000 fruit farmers behind Jiapei are the shareholders of Jiapei. The property rights of Jiapei are 100% owned by fruit farmers, and year-end dividends are paid according to the number of shares. The interests are fully bound, and the standardized production and brand value are well maintained.
Yuxuedong had experienced Jiapei’s shareholders’ meeting during his investigation in New Zealand. After one year, he summarized what was not done well in marketing. More than 2000 farmers voted to determine the fate of the chairman. Including Jiapei’s intention to cooperate with local governments and fruit farmers in China to acquire China’s local G3. Tiejiapei’s brand was sold in China, but it was stranded because it did not get the support of more than 75% of Kiwi growers in New Zealand.
In China, not to mention the national level control, even the organizational capacity of local governments or regional alliances has no real influence. Although there are some regional brands and associations, there are only forms and the organization is too loose.
The government should not intervene too much in the market. Take the domestic kiwi fruit for example. Affected by natural factors every year, it is inevitable that the price will fluctuate. It is difficult to predict the market that is not standardized, and fruit farmers have their own minds. Sometimes people look at the early purchase price and want to harvest in advance and trade as soon as possible before the fruit is ripe. This will certainly have an impact on the overall quality of the market. However, if the government forces them not to sell until they are mature, in case they cannot be sold, fruit farmers often push carts to pile unsold fruits in front of the government building to ask for explanations.
Pujiang government has also drafted some measures to prevent the decline of kiwi fruit quality, but it has been afraid to implement them. It can only make propaganda and education by side.
In New Zealand, in 2016, a large number of ripe fruits poured into the New Zealand market supply chain. Jiapei adopted the “crop management” model, eliminated 3million boxes of inventory, and would rather rot in trees than sell at a lower price.
This is very similar to the milk dumping incident on the Mississippi River in 1932. It is not the unscrupulous capitalists, but a kind of self-help. As long as the supply exceeds the demand by 1%, the price may fall by 10%, which cannot be moved by immediate interests.
Most retail investors in China did not have the courage to break the boat before forming a close group, nor did they have enough anti risk ability.
Chinese fruit cup
In the documentary “Clarkson’s farm” launched by Amazon, many viewers were surprised by the mechanization of each pore, the precise quality control of crops and fruits and the strict management of relevant laws and regulations. This is just a large-scale documentary of Jeremy, the host of “top gear”, presenting a drop in the bucket of modern agriculture.
Modern agriculture has also been widely practiced in China, but it is more about self production and self marketing of small-scale peasant economy, especially in the field of fruit. It has been less than 20 years since the Chinese people began to eat well instead of full, and relevant industrial upgrading and laws and regulations have not been fully covered.
Yuxuedong has been engaged in fruit all his life and has come to a conclusion: China’s seed intellectual property is a big problem.
In China, most local fruit traders are mainly regional public brands, such as Yantai apple, Gannan navel orange, etc. In addition to Jiapei, the earliest fruit traders operating under the brand also have dule, with bananas and pineapples as the main products, and the origin is the Philippines.
“How dare we open up production in China!” Yuxuedong has something to say.
On March 1st, 2022, China officially implemented the newly revised Seed Law of the people’s Republic of China to strengthen the protection of new plant varieties. It is mainly reflected in the expansion of the protection scope and protection links of new plant variety rights, the establishment of a substantive derivative variety system for the first time, the increase of the liability for tort compensation, and the improvement of relevant legal liabilities.
However, what many breeders and breeding enterprises resent is that the new seed law does not modify the content of farmers’ self retaining seeds.
According to the new seed law, China is still a traditional large agricultural country. Farmers can propagate the breeding materials of authorized varieties for their own use without the permission of the variety owner and without paying the corresponding fees.
Yuxuedong, who has been engaged in fruit research and development all his life, is a bit pessimistic. Now he works as a research and development consultant in a fruit company in Yunnan. He often instills the idea in the company that “make a quick profit while making new varieties, or he will be ‘eliminated’ in a few years.”
At this point, we can roughly understand why, as a large agricultural country with extremely rich fruit resources, a large number of hardworking farmers and a 1.23 trillion fruit retail market, there is no such fruit brand as Jiapei. This is actually the “wine cup of Chinese fruits” in a broad sense.
However, how to make many hardworking farmers get rich together through agricultural IP, instead of planting in disorder without organization and finally falling into the vicious competition of price war, is obviously a systematic problem that requires multiple efforts.
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