China News Service, Changchun, November 7th. Title: "Lock-freshness" of Jilin's black soil fresh corn: from an ear of good grain to a good chain
Author Li Zhao Jin Qiao
From an ear of corn to an industrial chain, in Jilin Nong'an, a major agricultural county in the country, the industry path of fresh corn is very clear: on the planting side, the quality is stabilized with orders and standards, on the freshness side, technology and equipment are used to build a solid guarantee, and on the processing side, deep processing and branding are used to increase growth.
In early November, in the packaging workshop of Liangyu Food Co., Ltd. ("Liangyu Food") in Nong'an County, Jilin Province, workers on both sides of the conveyor belt re-inspected and graded the finished corn after locking it in. The production season has passed, and only the packaging link is running in the workshop. Forklifts transport fresh corn of different grades to the packaging area, where they are manually packed into boxes and labeled, waiting for shipment.
Workers at work in the packaging workshop. Photo by Li Zhao
General Manager Yu Hongjun stood at the door of the workshop, looked at the scene in front of him and said, "I have been in this business for 20 years. The most difficult thing is not growing corn, but how to sell it well."
At Jilin Province Shengxin Agricultural Technology Group Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Shengxin Agriculture"), another fresh corn enterprise in Nong'an County, the scene is even larger. The company's factory covers an area of 55,000 square meters, with a full-load production capacity of 100 million ears. Through the fully transparent glass in the packaging workshop, every aspect of the workers' operations is clearly visible. In the warehouse, metal transfer boxes are filled with corn and stacked neatly, several meters high. General manager Li Xiaomin told reporters that this year’s fresh corn shipments have reached one-third of the total reserves.
Two companies, two rhythms, but pointing to the same industrial proposition: Nong'an's fresh corn is moving from growing corn and selling corn to a complete industrial chain from the field to the workshop, from freshness to intensive processing.
Nong'an is located in the world's three golden corn belts, with deep black soil and a large temperature difference between day and night. Therefore, the sugar content and taste of fresh corn have natural advantages. The county's fresh corn planting area is 27,000 acres, with an annual output of 72 million ears and an annual output value of 216 million yuan. Focusing on Nong'an Town, Xinnong Township, Helong Town, and Qiangang Township and radiating to surrounding towns, a high-quality fresh corn industry belt has been formed.
The planting end is the first gateway of this industrial chain. Liangyu Food connects farmers with order contracts and drives 1,500 farmers to plant through "pre-production investment + mid-production guidance + post-production guaranteed price recovery", providing more than 300 jobs. Yu Hongjun said that fresh corn and field corn cannot be planted next to each other, as they will become powdered when the wind blows. Almost none of the four ridges next to the field corn can be used, so the base must be circulated in large areas. Liangyu's planting area this year is about 300 acres. Seeds, technology, and fertilizers are all provided by the company, and farmers plant according to standards.
Farmers harvest corn in the cornfield. Photo courtesy of Simpson Thacher Agriculture
Simpson Agriculture adopts the "Party Branch + Company + Shareholders" model to work closely with planting bases to unify varieties, technology and field management, and build an industrial closed loop of "seed fertilizer supply-technical support-order acquisition". The company has also established an agricultural service department, which brings together retired agricultural professors, industry management backbones and farmer representatives who have been rooted in the fields all year round to follow up on the entire process from seed selection to harvesting.
The freshness-locking technology is the core link that distinguishes fresh corn from ordinary corn. In the production process of Simpson Agriculture, corn must be completed within 3 hours from harvesting in the field to entering the workshop. It goes through processes such as peeling, cleaning, blanching, vacuuming, and high-temperature sterilization at 121°C. Only water participates in cleaning during the entire process. The packaging workshop is built according to 100,000-level purification standards and is ventilated 12 to 15 times per hour. Workers must go through disinfection procedures before entering.
Li Xiaomin told reporters that the fresh-lock bags are made of imported HG material, which has low oxygen permeability and can be stored in the dark at room temperature for 12 months, but the cost is also higher. "To be a brand, you cannot deceive yourself in terms of quality." It is this freshness-locking system from the field to the workshop that allows Nong'an fresh corn to open up sales in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai markets. Among Liangyu Food’s offline customers, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai account for about 70%. Simpson Agriculture’s online channels and offline supermarkets each account for half, and the products have entered national chain supermarkets such as Walmart.
The extension of the industrial chain does not stop at the freshness-keeping link. In the workshop of Liangyu Food, Yu Hongjun calculated an account for reporters: The company currently focuses on fresh corn, with an output value of 44 million yuan and an output of 20 million ears in 2025, but there is almost no deep-processed products. "I went to Hebei for inspection, and more than 30 dishes were made for a corn banquet. The noodles and dumplings were all made of corn. We only knew the difference after looking at it." He said that the production season of fresh corn is only two months, and the equipment is idle for ten months a year. If it does not extend to deep processing, production capacity and profits will be limited.
Simpson Agriculture will rapidly expand its production after it is completed and put into operation in 2024. In 2025, it will achieve an output value of 98 million yuan and a fresh corn output of 30 million ears. It has also begun to plan high value-added products such as corn juice and asparagus tea.
Li Xiaomin revealed that the company plans to build the third phase of fresh corn processing project with a total investment of 100 million yuan. It will add four high-efficiency processing production lines and constant-temperature warehouses. The annual output value is expected to reach 200 million yuan and the land will be 75,000 square meters. The construction time is expected to be from 2027 to 2029. After completion, it will mainly focus on fresh corn, supplemented by green storage and corn intensive processing, to create an agricultural technology, modernization, and digital industrial park integrating planting, processing, storage, sales, and logistics.
Fresh corn processing production line. Photo courtesy of Simpson Thacher Agriculture
Behind the company's progress is Nong'an County's systematic layout of the fresh corn industry chain. The local area has increased its efforts to cultivate leading enterprises, extended the corn industry chain through multiple channels, used green food as the benchmark, and cooperated with scientific research institutions to create a high-quality fresh corn production technology system with Nong'an characteristics and form a distinctive fresh-keeping technology system. At the same time, we are actively cultivating a group of agricultural special food intensive processing enterprises represented by Simpson Thacher and Liangyu Company, accelerating the research and development of new fresh corn products, such as corn juice, asparagus tea and other high value-added products, and promoting the transformation of the fresh corn industry into intensive processing.
Officials said that by building an integrated industrial chain of high-end fresh corn production, processing, storage and transportation, and sales, Nong'an strives to form the prototype of China's first high-quality fresh corn production county in three years. (over)
