Feature (2) Tonghai vegetables nourish neighboring countries

Located in central Yunnan’s Yuxi city, Tonghai County has gained fame from vegetables plantation. In August, the Tonghai vegetable-growing area near Qilu Lake presents a unique view.

“The Chinese Vegetable Industry Conference was held here last year, contributing a lot to Tonghai’s reputation.” Local vegetable grower Shen Jianmeng was chatting  with his fellow farmers.

Under the Belt and Road actions, Tonghai vegetables have been sold to the international market in the neighboring countries. From January to June this year, the export value of Tonghai produces reached 476 million US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 41 percent.

Last year,  47 companies in the county grew 7,933 hectares of vegetables. Around 70 percent of the arable land in Tonghai was turned into vegetable bases.

Shen Jianmeng started growing vegetables in 1990s. “Now sprinklers are installed in the field for irrigation,” said Shen. “And local authorities either inspect our vegetable bases or train us in agro-technologies every year.”

In the cold-chain logistics center of the Tonghai High-Land Produces Company, workers were unloading cabbages from trucks for cold storage. “The center usually deals with around 250 metric tons of vegetables per day, with the daily maximum of 450 tons,” said the company head Yang Wei. 

The company was established in 2003 and has exported vegetables to the Belt and Road countries of Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and others. In 2017, the sales revenue reached 506 million yuan, with a foreign exchange of US$ 68 million.

To better serve overseas customers, the company also set up specific working teams to update the customers’ needs in vegetable varieties and quantities, according to the market conditions in each country. 

Currently, 11 Tonghai agro-companies have direct sales outlets in Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and others. Yang Wei said his company has already set up the Cambodia branch in 2014 and built a cold storage, where vegetables transported to Cambodia via Chinese fridge trucks can be kept longer.

Reporting by Liu Ziyu; trans-editing by Wang Shixue