At 11 o'clock in the morning, as the fog around Shangdong Village clears away, over a dozen villagers are picking kiwi fruits and putting them into boxes for sorting and packing. 

 

"The international picking standard of kiwis is generally sugar degree which should be above 6.5. And the skin color is brown yellow," said Cao Xiaoliu, an entrepreneur who returned home to start the business in Shangdong Village.

 

He is the head of this kiwifruit planting base. In the past, he set up a kiwi planting base with farmers in Pingshi Town, Lechang City, Guangdong Province, helping 321 poverty-stricken households in five poor villages out of poverty. In 2014, Cao Xiaoliu returned to his hometown with kiwifruit trees and planting technology, and grew five varieties of kiwifruit on the wasteland. He adopted wild mode and mechanized management with the advantage of local high-quality water resources, loess resources, high altitude, sufficient sunshine time, sufficient rainfall, low temperature in winter that enables kiwis’ hibernating period. Therefore, the kiwifruits grown in his way taste sweet and fresh with rich aroma.

 

"I basically use cow dung and sheep dung to fertilize kiwifruit trees, and customers’ feedback is good," said Cao Xiaoliu.

 

This year, the output of kiwifruit is expected to exceed 200 tons. Based on the years of sales experience, Cao Xiaoliu customizes packaging boxes according to the size of kiwifruits, sells kiwifruit through WeChat and online sales platforms, and signs cooperation agreements with express companies.

 

"I have my own WeChat shop and over a dozen distributors who also engage in e-commerce. In terms of sales, now I ship four to five hundred pieces a day, and distributors ship one or two thousand pieces." 

 

Cao also recruited more than 10 villagers with an average age of 60 from nearby to work at the base with fixed working time and small workload. The base provides employees with shuttle bus, lunch and rest room for lunch break. Villager Yuan Mohui has worked here for five years, living a thriving life on his salary and raising chickens and ducks in his spare time.

 

"This job pays me more than 20,000 yuan a year. It's close to my home and I can take care of my family. It's good to work here," said Yuan Mohui.