On May 25th, the 2023 Second Annual Blueberry Harvest which is one of the Hunan Rural Cultural Tourism Festival Activities during the Spring Season was held in Zhongfang County of Huaihua with the theme of Pleasing the Palates by Taking a Blueberry Bite of Zhongfang. Blueberry industry experts, sales dealers and enterprise representatives across the country were gathering here to discuss such issues as the county’s blueberry industrial planting plans, the brand development and ways to market the fruit on a national scope while other visitors were having great fun in watching spectacular blueberry-related performances, picking blueberries, touring around blueberry fairs and having a bite of Zhongfang’s cuisine.
The harvest consists of a series of activities featuring “2+N”. Chief among these are the launching ceremony, the 2023 Zhongfang Blueberry Industry Development Forum, the Blueberry Fair Named a Tantalizing Bite of Zhongfang, and Zhongfang’s Cuisine Food Activity. The harvest is meant to promote the local blueberry industry and scale up efforts to integrate agriculture and tourism as a whole industrial chain. This practice would probably give rise to a scenario where rural tourism forms become diversified and the integration of agricultural production, agricultural processing industry and agricultural market service industry makes possible a new consumption boom.
During the launching ceremony, the Zhongfang Blueberry Industry Development Planning from 2022-2025 was released. This means that Luyang and Huaqiao will be designated as characteristic townships for planting blueberries and developing blueberry-related economy. This also means that Jingping township of Zhongfang and Huangxi township, with the help of blueberry industry development, will turn into comprehensive scenic spots incorporating sightseeing, blueberry sampling, blueberry picking, relaxation and recreation activities, and three tourist routes will be built up. After the launching ceremony, the Signing Ceremony of Zhongfang Cuisine was held with six cooperation agreements worth RMB 254 million signed up.
It has been reported that, in 2022, Zhongfang County boasted blueberry plantations which covered an area of over 8,000 mu and had an annual output of 500 ton worth RMB 20 million. Up to now, the blueberry bases in the county have accumulated up to 7,200 mu and the number is expected to be 8,200 mu. By then, with the total area of blueberry plantations across the county to be 10,000 mu , Zhongfang will be Hunan’s largest blueberry provenance whose annual output will be close to 10,000 ton.
(Translated by Dong Yue)