The Wushan plum brand is finding its way into more Chinese households while also boosting Wushan county's local rural economy, officials told the press on Sunday in Chongqing.

"The Wushan plum is the best plum in China and also quite an ecological fruit treasure, thanks to the unique geographical location, environment and climate from which it comes from," said Xu Haibo, a member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Wushan County Committee under Chongqing municipality.

For more than 1,000 years since the Tang Dynasty (618-907), farmers in Wushan have been planting plums and constantly renewing their planting techniques.

Huang Ming, a local official in charge of the fruit industry, remembered how in 2011 the region trialed on a new improved breed and gained more and more attention and praise nationwide a few years later.

Xu Haibo revealed that the county government recognizes plum as a local pillar industry and that the county's finance department will soon inject more than 100 million yuan each year to support the development of the local plum industry. Meanwhile, the local government insists on a progressive increase of funding by more than 10% each year to create the country's biggest plum farm.

"At present, plum is planted across 220 villages in 22 townships in Wushan county, benefiting more than 150,000 farmers from 50,000 households and leading 34,300 poor people from 10,130 households out of poverty and toward affluence," Xu stated at the press conference. "In 2020, the brand value of the Wushan plum reached 1.918 billion yuan, ranking first nationally for three consecutive years.”

"Industrial vitalization is the material basis for rural vitalization," Xu added, "and it has everything to do with increased employment and income among farmers. In recent years, Wushan county has taken the agricultural supply-side structural reforms as its main focus, taken poverty alleviation as its lead, and made up for shortcomings and bolstered weaknesses so that the plum industry can develop rapidly."

According to Liu Haiyan, vice head of Wushan county, the area's seasonal plums will be available on the market for 60 days, starting June 26 this year. The local government has projected a production volume of 110,000 tons with an output value of 1.6 billion yuan. In July, they will hold events to promote the plum in various cities, including Chongqing, Yantai, Wuhan, Guangzhou and Beijing. To help the plums reach more customers, 20 direct-sale stores will be established in Chongqing while other online channels will be set up in collaboration with major express couriers.

The plums now have more than 49,000 acres of plantation in Wushan, the largest area among any county in China. The local government expects to expand the plantation to 140,000 acres, which will be able to produce a volume of 1 million tons of plums. According to their plan, a research institute on plums will be established to resolve technological difficulties and additional supporting policies will be issued. Finally, the industrial chain, processed products such as jam and fruit wine, and the brand will be further built up and extended.

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