Zhejiang’s “first Yangmei auction” attracted all the attention.

Recently, the 2023 Wenzhou Yangmei (Red bayberry) Culture Festival and the Daluo Mountain Ding’ao Yangmei Picking Ceremony were held in Da’aoxi village, Zhuangyuan subdistrict of the city’s Longwan district. The event featured the “first Yangmei auction” of Zhejiang province, with two jin (one kilogram) of Ding’ao Yangmei sold at a price of 880 yuan.

Wenzhou has put its digital greenhouse for Yangmei, where the auctioned Yangmei was grown, into operation this year, as the facility is jointly developed by the Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the smart agricultural system developed by Xiaoyou, a software company. Unlike open field cultivation, the digital greenhouse comes with an environmental monitoring system featuring intelligent temperature control and fertigation. This helps create the most suitable growing environment for Yangmei and can respond to emergencies such as pests. This allows the Yangmei of this kind to hit the market 30 days earlier than those grown outdoors, thus becoming the “earliest” in Zhejiang province.

More than half of Ding’ao Yangmei is planted in the areas in proximity to Daluo Mountain, creating a competitive agricultural industry with Wenzhouese characteristics. In 2021, a provincial-level modern agricultural park planned around Daluo Mountain was approved. Following it, Wenzhou, together with the Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences and other research institutes, implemented “Five Excellence Projects”, aiming to advance the R&D of core technologies of growing Ding’ao Yangmei and cultivate quality Yangmei varieties. A total of 14 technology projects are launched, with subsidy funds totaling 20.5 million yuan.

Aiming to reinforce and upgrade the weak links in the industrial chains, Yangmei juice, sugar, ice slush, wine and other products made from Ding’ao Yangmei are promoted to develop fruit processing techniques. The marketing efforts also benefit Wenzhou’s top 20 Yangmei plantations and top 10 Yangmei picking tour routes, fueling the integrated development of primary, secondary, and tertiary Yangmei industries.