On November 17, at the R&D facility of Zhejiang Aijia Fruits & Vegetables Development Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Aijia Fruits & Vegetables") in Changshan Economic Development Zone, technicians meticulously recorded data for pomelo craft beer. Today, products like pomelo craft beer and fruit wines have opened new industrial avenues for the company.
The transformation of Changshan pomelos from ordinary fresh fruit into high-value-added commodities, achieving an industrial "rebirth," is attributed to the "technological golden bridge" built by united efforts. In recent years, the United Front Work Department of Changshan County has integrated expert resources from democratic parties to establish an innovation consortium of "scientists (experts) + entrepreneurs," helping private enterprises overcome bottlenecks and enhance quality.
To address challenges faced by Aijia Fruits & Vegetables in product development, quality testing, and market expansion, the United Front Work Department connected the company with high-level experts. Huang Weidong, a professor at China Agricultural University and member of the China Association for Promoting Democracy (CAPD), was invited as an agricultural industry consultant for Changshan County. A "precision service agreement" was signed between the company and Huang’s team. Together, they tackled technical challenges in whole-fruit high-value utilization and co-established the "National Engineering Research Center for Fruits and Vegetables Processing—Regional Sub-Center for the Four-Province Border Area of Zhejiang, Fujian, Anhui, and Jiangxi," providing support for regional agricultural product R&D and testing. Currently, the team has successfully developed four small-batch pomelo alcoholic products with the company, with plans to expand into functional dietary supplements in the future.
Previously, leveraging university-local cooperation facilitated by the CAPD, Aijia Fruits & Vegetables had already partnered with Liu Donghong, a professor at Zhejiang University and CAPD member, to establish the "Zhejiang University–Zhejiang Aijia Joint Research Center." Leading Zhejiang’s "Pioneer and Leading Goose" project, Professor Liu, also serving as director of the Changshan Pomelo Food R&D Center, collaborated with the company to develop 17 health-functional products, including pomelo fruit paste, generating a cumulative output value exceeding 170 million yuan over three years. Among these, NFC pomelo blended juice was selected as a designated product for the Asian Games. Their joint project, "Key Technologies for Post-Harvest Handling and Processing of Fresh Fruits," won the first prize in the National Industry-University-Research Cooperation Innovation Achievement Awards, the only project in Quzhou to receive this honor.
From technological breakthroughs to standard-setting, product innovation to talent incubation, the united front’s "expert + enterprise + industry" collaboration model continues to extend the value chain of Changshan pomelos. Through integrated primary, secondary, and tertiary industries, the total output value of Changshan’s pomelo industry chain is projected to exceed 7 billion yuan this year.
A representative from the United Front Work Department of Changshan County stated that the next step involves comprehensively identifying the needs of private enterprises, precisely matching expert resources from democratic parties and intellectual associations, and building an innovation ecosystem for efficient "demand-resource-project" alignment to sustain enterprise innovation and industrial upgrading.
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