Change of crop bears fruit

"Moreover, the locals can help with the plantation whenever they have time, because their homes are close by," He says.

To date, Joyvio has also invested more than 400 million yuan in its blueberry plantations in Qujing and developed a standard blueberry cultivation demonstration area, a research and development facility, a seedling breeding base, a cold chain center and a recreational fruit-picking garden.

A seamless and transparent traceability system from cultivation to sales has taken shape.

So far, the company has established 667 hectares of blueberry plantations in Qujing, which has enabled local farmers to earn 5.8 million yuan from leasing their land to the company and 9 million yuan from working on the plantations.

Qujing's blueberry growing potential has also attracted the attention of the International Blueberry Organization, which co-hosted an international blueberry conference in Qujing early September to introduce the city to potential investors.

"I've talked to five enterprises specializing in cold chains, financing and agricultural equipment, which can help us to develop the industry upstream and downstream," says Cui Xingguo, general manager of Joyvio Qujing Agriculture Co.

Joyvio will continue to work with rural cooperatives and capital funds, introduce new blueberry species, standardize blueberry growth practices and expand blueberry production in the future, Cui says.

The Qilin district alone has its sights set on developing a 2,000-hectare blueberry industry belt over the next five years, with the goal of producing 30,000 tons of quality blueberries and more than 3 billion yuan in output value.

Xu Huayuan is content to looking after his blueberry trees, but he still has 0.4 hectare of land on which his family grows tobacco.

The company has taught him certain blueberry plantation techniques, but there are still things that are difficult for him to understand.

"There's still a lot for me to learn. But hopefully I can learn all it takes to grow blueberries on my own land one day," Xu says.

Contact the writers through yangfeiyue@chinadaily.com.cn