What does it mean?, This year, Malu grapes have gone from being sold by "jin" to being sold by "skewer", reaching a peak | area | grapes

"What mature varieties are there now?" "Help me put three strings in a box, thank you." "I want all of these, how much does it cost in total?" Recently, at the sales office of the Malu Grape Theme Park, there was a constant stream of citizens and tourists. Starting from June 1st, five ultra early maturing varieties of Malu grapes have matured and are now available for sale. As soon as the news was released, many consumers deliberately drove to try new things.

"This year, consumers can still taste Malu grapes from June 1st to Christmas. Compared to previous years, early maturing varieties have been launched earlier and have more varieties. After standardized production, grapes can be sold as' skewers'," the relevant person in charge of Malu Town told reporters.

An increase in the number of early maturing varieties

Joyful, 3-13, Sunlight Red seedless, Shaoxing No.1, Jingmi, Morning Jasmine... In the greenhouse of the Malu Grape Theme Park, the air is filled with a sweet fruity aroma, and clusters of grapes that have been bagged on the vines are abundant and tempting. Conscientious citizens have found that this year's Malu grapes are on the market earlier than in previous years.

The reporter learned that in 2022, the planting area of Malu grapes was nearly 4400 acres, with a total output of nearly 5000 tons and a total output value of over 110 million yuan, an increase of 7% compared to the previous year, and an average unit price of 23 yuan/kg. Among them, the planting area of medium maturity varieties accounts for over 50%, mainly consisting of Jufeng and Jurose. "Compared to last year, the planting area of this year's super early maturing varieties has expanded, and the temperature in early summer is higher and there is more sunlight, so there are more early maturing grape varieties and better taste." According to Shan Tao, the general manager of Shanghai Malu Grape Park Co., Ltd., the planting area of early maturing varieties has increased from 400 acres to 800 acres this year, doubling. In terms of varieties, in addition to the common ones such as Xile, 3-13, and Sunlight Red seedless, new varieties such as Shaoxing 1 and Jingmi have been added this year.

The early maturing variety Shaoxing 1 in the greenhouse. Photo by Zhu Yawen

Why promote early maturing varieties to be launched early? Shan Tao told reporters that the earlier you can seize the market. "There are fewer grape varieties on the market in June, and after the release of grapes from other regions in July and August, the market share of Malu grapes will be affected to a certain extent."

In the past few years, early maturing varieties were mainly planted and sold by the Malu Grape Research Institute and Malu Grape Theme Park. Local farmers mostly planted mid to late maturing varieties, mainly because the yield and sweetness of early maturing varieties were not high, and they could not sell at a good price. "In recent years, our research institute has been continuously trying to cultivate excellent varieties, such as Shaoxing 1, which can have a sugar content of about 17 degrees. Now, once the early maturing varieties mature, we promote them to grape growers in the whole town, which reflects our advantages." Shan Tao introduced that there are also special early maturing varieties among the early maturing varieties, which only take one and a half months from flowering to maturity. At present, Malu grape growers have gradually begun to widely plant early maturing varieties such as Xiahei and Jinxiang 1, indicating that farmers' awareness of early planting and early harvest is gradually increasing.

"In recent years, the focus of the research institute has been on variety adjustment, gradually increasing the proportion of early maturing varieties from 20% to 40%. Not only should early maturing varieties be good to grow, but they should also be delicious and easy to sell." Shan Chuanlun, the director of the Malu Grape Research Institute, told reporters that cultivating early maturing grape varieties is like running a marathon, you cannot stop, you also need to be calm.

The level of scientific planting continues to improve

How many grapes are there in a string of giant grapes?

Previously, growers were not familiar with this. This year, Malu grapes mainly promote single string packaging and single string pricing, without weighing. For example, Jufeng grapes are controlled at around 45 to 50 grains per bunch, about 500 grams.

"We encourage some eligible farmers to sell grapes in clusters this year, which will force them to increase their standardized planting efforts. If the grape clusters are particularly large, the interests of farmers will be damaged, and they will pay more attention to thinning the seeds. Of course, we will also determine the minimum weight of each variety in a single cluster, such as Sunshine Rose, and ensure that a cluster is controlled at 750 grams or more." Zhang Jinpan, Deputy Director of the Malu Town Agricultural and Rural Service Center, told reporters that "pricing by cluster" reflects the improvement of Malu grape scientific planting level, and the center will also provide technical guidance to growers.

The workers are trimming and packing. Photo by Zhu Yawen

As a well-known real estate agricultural product brand in Shanghai, Malu Grape has placed great emphasis on brand management and promotion in recent years, continuously improving its scientific and standardized level in all aspects of planting and sales. For example, by integrating and promoting green production technologies and strengthening training for cooperatives and growers, Malu Grape has established 20 green certified or above bases, with an area of over 2000 acres and a certified output of nearly 2000 tons. The green certification rate has reached 40%, which is much higher than the average green certification rate of agricultural products in the city. At the same time, the "Malu Grape Digital Cloud Platform" has also been launched, with the application of "one string, one code" to trace more than 2.2 million labels, providing authentic Malu Grape with an "ID card", and consumers can scan the code to verify its authenticity.

"This year, about 30 cooperatives in the town have become authorized users of the 'Malu Grape' trademark, standardizing production and packaging, in order to overall improve the commercialization level and brand effect of Malu grapes." Zhang Jinpan said.

The development of Shanghai's grape industry should be "boutique"

Recently, Shan Chuanlun, the father of Malu grapes, who is nearly 80 years old, often uses a cane to observe bagged early maturing grapes in the greenhouse. This old grape farmer, who has been growing grapes for half his life, still spends his whole day pondering issues related to grapes: how to balance market share and quality? Which industry development model is suitable for Shanghai? What are the advantages of Malu grapes and how can they be fully utilized?

"Our current research progress is' a small pace in one year, a big pace in three to five years'. In the past few years, our goal was to develop early maturing varieties, the earlier the better, and to occupy the market. Nowadays, early ripening is not enough, and we need to optimize, not only early maturing varieties but also mid to late maturing varieties." Dan Chuanlun told reporters that Malu grapes are backed by Shanghai, an international metropolis with huge consumption potential and promising market prospects. "Urban agriculture" should pursue quality rather than yield. ". He gave a simple and understandable example: "In Shanghai, grapes priced at 10 yuan per kilogram, 50 yuan per kilogram, and 60 yuan per kilogram are sold simultaneously, and those priced at 60 yuan per kilogram are often sold out the earliest."

Shan Chuanlun observed grapes in the greenhouse. Photo by Zhu Yawen

Shan Chuanlun said that from the late 1980s to the early 1990s, the production of Malu grapes continued to rise, but the phenomenon of farmers losing money became increasingly apparent. "At that time, the market situation was that cheap grapes could not be sold and expensive grapes could not be bought. The main reason was that people's living standards had significantly improved, and consumers' requirements for grapes had shifted from quantity oriented to quality oriented. After the establishment of the Malu Grape Research Institute, it proposed" controlling yield and improving quality "and implemented a series of technical improvement plans such as bagging fruit ears and developing facility grapes. The average output value per mu gradually increased from over 4000 yuan to over 20000 yuan.".

Facing the increasingly fierce competition in the domestic and international fruit consumption market, another major challenge for Malu Grape is, what should we do if the wolf comes? "You can't hide, you have to go up and dance with the wolves." This is the answer given by Shan Chuanlun. He told reporters that the biggest problem with seasonal fruits is transportation and storage. For example, the popular Japanese Haruko grape needs to go through a transportation process from harvesting and marketing to reaching consumers, and its freshness will be more or less discounted. For the local fruit consumption market in Shanghai, the locally sold Malu grapes have a unique advantage. "Grapes are best sold under trees. We need to attract more and more citizens and tourists to visit Malu to play, pick grapes, and eat grapes through early adjustment and high-quality planting, so that farmers can become prosperous together."

There is a constant stream of consumers who specifically come to purchase grapes. Photo by Zhu Yawen