Houwaqiao Kiwi Fruits Cooperatives of Shannxi Federation of Specialized Farmers Cooperatives

Established in 2013, the Shannxi Federation of Specialized Farmers Cooperatives promotes the spirit of “Technology Innovation, Government Guidance, Win-Win by Cooperation and Co-Development”. Adhering to the philosophy of the market as a guide, the industry upgrading as an opportunity and increasing agricultural income as its duty, the federation unites and leads farmers to co-build a new richer, more civilized, and more harmonious socialism village relying on hard work and wisdom. The Federation aims to integrate advantage resources of large agriculture in Shaanxi Province, guide all farmers’ specialized cooperatives in the Province to develop modern agriculture, transform the agriculture development modes, and identify new opportunities for agriculture efficiency improvement and farmers’ income increasing.

Houwaqiao Kiwi Fruits Cooperatives is one of the members of Shanxi Federation of Specialized Farmers Cooperatives and also one of the beneficiaries of the MTCP2 program. Houwaqiao Kiwi Fruits Cooperatives is founded in 2015, with Zhu Jihong as the director of the board. Right now, the cooperative has 320 farmer members–120 of them are poor farmers. The cooperative has built 380 hectares of standardized demonstration farms for kiwi fruit plantation in 48 villages, providing agricultural technological training, testing, extension, inputs supply, and fruit marketing services. The major approaches of the cooperative are as follows:

1. Establish a standardized kiwi fruit plantation base. Since 2015, the cooperative started to build a standardized kiwi plantation farm in 48 villages, covering areas of 5600 mu. The cooperative is responsible for a standard business plan, training, production input, planting management, and product sales. To control the product quality, the cooperative also successfully applied green agricultural products certificate, GAP certificate, and ISO9000 certificate.
2. Promote technology training and extension. The cooperative has invited experts from Northwest Agriculture and Forestry Technology University as tutor to guide the kiwi fruit production. Through the cooperation among universities, research agencies, the cooperative has training 170 local experts on kiwi fruit plantation and plant protection. The cooperative holds more than 300 trainings per year and more than 23000 farmers will be training by the cooperative.
3. Build a quality brand. The cooperative focused on brand building in order to increase the added value of their products. Chairman of the board of the cooperative Mr. Zhu said he learned from training programs hold by AMI that, kiwi fruit from New Zealand can be sold at tens of yuan per piece, but domestic produced kiwi fruit can only be sold as around 6 yuan per kilo. The major competitiveness is lying in the brand. Since then, the cooperative has registered its own brand name and participated in different kinds of expo and trade fairs, in order to promote its products. Now, the kiwi fruit produced by the cooperative can be sold at a higher price and the yearly revenue can reach 40 million yuan.
4. Develop an integrated industry. The cooperative cooperates with Pengshengda fruits company for plantation cooperative and to enrich fruits supply to the market. The cooperative also collaborates with fruit processing industries in order to prolong its business chain and value chain. The cooperative starts its own agency for online business, which can receive orders online and sell online. The cooperative also started agri-tourism based on its production base. Since the establishment, Houwaqiao Kiwi Fruits Cooperatives has made a great achievement and won a great number of rewards on different kinds of national-level competition and expo. The cooperative also helped the poor farmers to have a sustainable income source by planting kiwi fruits. Thought the standardized production and technological guidance, farmer members’ fruit production has increased by 20% per mu, and sales revenue increased by 2000-5000yuan per mu. The cooperative also recognized as a model for poverty alleviation in Shannxi province.