Major vegetable production base strives for stable supply

JINAN, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) -- Shortly before the arrival of dawn, vegetable farmer Zheng Tongcheng walked into his vegetable greenhouse, picked more than 250 kg of eggplants, and transported them to the Gaonan fruit and vegetable professional cooperative.

Zheng has grown vegetables for more than 10 years in Zhengjiazhuang Village in the city of Shouguang, Shandong Province -- one of China's major vegetable production bases. He has never worried about sales as the cooperative will purchase the vegetables and distribute them nationwide.

"Now a large number of local vegetables are on the market. Every day, more than 10 trucks from outside Shouguang come to our cooperative and purchase vegetables wholesale," said Gao Hongyan, head of the Gaonan fruit and vegetable cooperative.

The cooperative has more than 300 farmers providing it with a steady vegetable supply all year round. It mainly sells vegetables to Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and Inner Mongolia and also some other regions, Gao noted.

At present, Shouguang has nearly 1,500 fruit and vegetable cooperatives in operation, with a daily output of about 10,000 tonnes of vegetables.

As COVID-19 takes a toll on the fruits and vegetables supply chain, Shouguang is striving to overcome the impact of the epidemic and ensure a stable supply.

The Shouguang Donghua vegetables cooperative cooperates with 102 farmers from the surrounding six villages. With peppers, cucumbers and over 10 other vegetable varieties recently entering their harvest period, Pang Dong, director of the cooperative, is very busy organizing deliveries every morning.

"The cooperative's daily supply of vegetables is about 50 tonnes, and we have set up a logistics team to stabilize the supply to cities like Chongqing, Chengdu and Mianyang," he said.

Cooperatives in Shouguang also follow the "point-to-point" epidemic prevention and control policy: truck drivers outside Shouguang place an order in advance to cooperatives detailing the varieties and quantities of vegetables they need. After arriving in Shouguang, the cooperatives carry out loading operations -- and drivers do not directly contact local personnel throughout the whole process.

Also, as one of China's main vegetable distribution centers, Shouguang strives to ensure timely allocation of vegetables from and to the country's other markets according to both the vegetable supply and demand situation and the vegetable trading situation.

Guo Mingqian, of the Shouguang Dili agricultural products logistics park, said the daily dynamic inventory of the logistics park is over 10,000 tonnes, which can guarantee vegetable supply for more than three days.

Shouguang currently has an annual output of 4.5 million tonnes of vegetables, according to Wang Haitao from the Shouguang municipal bureau of commerce.

"Shouguang relies on more than 2,000 customers and channel resources to strengthen coordination with wholesale markets for agricultural products, to increase the market delivery volume, and ensure a stable supply of vegetables," said Wang.