E China's peach farmers embrace peachy lives

NANJING -- During the summertime, the air in Yangshan Township, known as the "hometown of honey peaches," is permeated with the sweet aroma of peaches.

Zhang Jianxie, 57, a local peach farmer, enjoys the heady scent during the season. He has been recently busy picking and packing ripe peaches from his orchard. The visible joy on his face makes it evident that the harvest was good this year.

Located in the city of Wuxi in east China's Jiangsu Province, Yangshan has more than 1,600 hectares of peach orchards, yielding nearly 20,000 tonnes of the fruit last year.

"We used to sell peaches by shouldering them to docks and train stations. But now we sell the fruit both online and offline," said Zhang. "We only need to wait at home for courier personnel to collect the peaches and transport them to customers across the country."

With exquisite package and good quality, one single peach can be sold for as much as 50 yuan (about 7.7 U.S. dollars), Zhang said, adding that their local production cooperative set up by six households can generate sales worth approximately 1 million yuan every year.

Such favorable business conditions are attributable to a series of measures taken by the local government such as free training programs in peach farming, e-commerce and brand marketing.

Additionally, processing enterprises have partnered with local farmers to improve the peach farming industrial chain and developed peach products such as juice, gum, pit carvings and wine, which help ensure good income for local farmers throughout the year and not just during harvest season.

According to Yang Guozhong, Party chief of Yangshan, the total output value of the peach industry chain exceeded 1.5 billion yuan in 2020, and the per-capita disposable income of local residents reached nearly 55,000 yuan.

With the increasing popularity of honey peaches and sufficient government support, the lives of Yangshan farmers have significantly improved.

"Our lives are even sweeter than the honey peaches," Zhang said, adding that the local government also helped residents rebuild their houses and improve their living conditions in recent years.

"Sweet peaches, beautiful sceneries and happy lives are our aspirations for the vitalization of Yangshan," Yang said.

Besides efforts in boosting the peach industry and beautifying the environment, the local government is also promoting rural tourism.

The township organizes various amusement activities to attract visitors. The peach blossom festival and a music fest held last spring saw more than 2 million tourists, despite the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic.