Friday May 25, 2018
Home > News > Economy
Text:| Print|

Growers given space to sell

2012-11-13 09:16 Global Times     Web Editor: Wang Fan comment
Residents buy tangerines in Zhongshan Park Monday. The local government has allowed growers to sell the fruit in downtown parks until November 26. Photo: Cai Xianmin/GT

Residents buy tangerines in Zhongshan Park Monday. The local government has allowed growers to sell the fruit in downtown parks until November 26. Photo: Cai Xianmin/GT

The local government has allowed Chongming County tangerine growers to sell their fruit in four downtown public parks to help boost sales after this season's plentiful harvest, local media reported Monday.

"Because they had a very good harvest this year, it is helpful for growers to have booths in the parks so they can sell the tangerines directly to consumers. They harvested 30 percent more tangerines than they had the previous year," said Zhu Jianfei, director of the Hengsha town agriculture service center in Chongming.

Growers at Zhongshan Park sold out their entire 3,200 kilogram stock of tangerines by 2 pm Monday, the first day they were allowed to sell in the parks.

"I came to support local farmers. Although I can buy tangerines anywhere, I prefer the ones grown in Chongming. They may not be the cheapest, but they are fresher," a local resident surnamed Zhang told the Global Times. 

Zhu estimated that they sold more than six tons in total for the day.

Residents will be able to buy freshly picked tangerines at Zhongshan Park, Fuxing Park, Yangpu Park and the Shanghai Botanical Garden until November 26, according to a report in the Xinmin Evening News.

Tangerines are one of Shanghai's major local crops. Local farmers have planted more than 7,000 hectares of tangerine trees, about 80 percent of which are in Chongming County, according to the Shanghai Forestry Station of the Shanghai Municipal Afforestation and City Appearance and Environmental Sanitation Administration.

So far, the growers have only sold about one-third of this year's crop as wholesale prices have fallen about 40 percent from last year to about 1 yuan ($0.16) per kilogram, Zhu said.

"Even when growers have a good harvest, they still worry about losing money, so we worked with local authorities to directly reach the end consumers," Zhu told the Global Times.

Comments (0)

Copyright ©1999-2011 Chinanews.com. All rights reserved.
Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.