Yecheng pomegranate industry chain extension: from pastoral picking to deep processing and integration with culture and tourism

Carrying a bamboo basket and walking through the garden, the branches are full of red fruits. Parents hold their babies in their arms and pluck the big round pomegranates with trembling little hands.

During the National Day holiday, tourists immersed themselves in the joy of picking in the pomegranate garden in Tuowan Oulang Village, Besireke Town, Yecheng County, Kashgar Prefecture, Xinjiang. Not far away, in the processing workshop of the Red Sun Fruit Farmers' Professional Cooperative, fresh fruits are sorted and sterilized, and clear pomegranate juice is continuously poured into glass bottles.

While counting the pomegranates received, he responded to the order messages that kept popping up on his mobile phone. "Our pomegranate juice tastes good and we have a lot of customers for reservations." Nurmaimaiti Tolamati, the head of the cooperative, was overjoyed.

The average annual sunshine exceeds 3,000 hours, the temperature difference between day and night reaches more than 15 degrees Celsius, and the snow water of Kunlun Mountain soaks the fertile soil... Yecheng has unique conditions for growing pomegranates.

In the early years, local pomegranates were mostly planted sporadically in front of and behind houses. After harvesting, most of them were tasted at home, and at most they were shipped to the street for retail sale.

“Good pomegranates cannot just be sold at the doorstep.” In 2018, with the help of the Tuowan Oulang Village Committee, Nurmaimaiti Tolamati took the lead in establishing a cooperative and transferred 200 acres of pomegranate orchards. 18 villagers joined the cooperative for development. Standardized orchard management and maintenance, unified pruning, pest control, and drip irrigation belts have been implemented to steadily increase fruit production.

The cooperative's circulating orchards have now increased to 1,800 acres, and its members have grown from the original 18 households to more than 50 households. Looking at the county, the pomegranate planting area reaches 8,301 acres, with an annual output of more than 2,300 tons.

The shelf life of fresh fruits is only three to five days. If the fruits are grown well, how to extend the industrial chain and resolve the sales pressure of concentrated fresh fruits on the market has become a new topic.

"Look at this pomegranate juice, 'Miao Kong' is available on the online store..." Nurmaimaiti Tolamati said. At the end of last year, a pomegranate deep processing production line built with an investment of more than 5 million yuan from Shanghai's aid to Xinjiang was put into operation. Products such as pomegranate juice, pomegranate fruit wine, and pomegranate liquor have continued to increase the added value of pomegranates.

Circle around the pomegranate and land more combos.

The pomegranate style garden not far from the orchard has a rainbow slide, a wave pool, and a parent-child water splashing area. There are many visitors to the water park. RV campsites and B&B hotels welcome batches of self-driving tourists.

“Not only can you taste sweet pomegranates here, you can also fish, camp, play in the water, and enjoy leisure time.” Yang Biao, the person in charge of the Pomegranate Style Park, said, “The villagers have a tourist meal at their doorstep.”

It’s lively offline and booming online. Cadres and villagers walked into the live broadcast room one after another, pushing pomegranates out of Yecheng and across the country with the help of the Internet. "The live broadcast of the goods has opened up the market and let more people know about the red pomegranates under the Kunlun Mountains." said Maimetiming Yizezi, the mayor of Besirek Town.

From selling fresh fruits to selling products, from scattered planting to large-scale operations, from single forest fruit planting to integrated development of agriculture, culture and tourism, Yecheng County continues to promote the value-added of pomegranates throughout the chain. The pomegranates are red, the days are sweeter, and the vivid scroll of promoting the comprehensive revitalization of the countryside is slowly spreading under the Kunlun Mountains.

Reporter: He Yong Ardak