Shanghai's Baoshan District has been steadfast in implementing the East-West collaboration and poverty alleviation deployment, leveraging the unique tropical resource advantages of Gaoliang Township in Shizong County, Qujing City. The focus has been on the upgrading and transformation of local specialty industries, using a core strategy of capital empowerment for foundation building and market bridge-building for expansion. This comprehensive, multi-level approach has fueled the development of Gaoliang Township's golden passion fruit industry. As of now, the planting scale of golden passion fruit has surpassed 3,000 mu, with an output value exceeding 16 million yuan. This has not only injected new momentum into the upgrade of local tropical fruit industries but also opened a new chapter in industrial development.
Capital Empowerment for Foundation Building: From Pilot Projects to Scalable Clusters
To address challenges like severe homogenization of traditional crops (e.g., late-maturing tangerines, navel oranges), low market prices, and weak farmer motivation, Gaoliang Township leveraged its favorable tropical climate in 2022. It introduced an enterprise to pilot golden passion fruit cultivation on 80 mu, achieving a mu yield value of 12,000 yuan in that first year, a 32% increase over traditional varieties. This pilot identified a path for large-scale industrial development and helped Baoshan precisely target its industrial support efforts.
To solve issues of low standardization, missing supporting facilities, and limited driving capacity, Baoshan District precisely allocated special East-West collaboration funds. It continuously intensified efforts to upgrade the golden passion fruit industry. In 2024, 800,000 yuan of collaboration funds were invested in a 300-mu standardized golden passion fruit planting project. Shanghai's advanced scientific management techniques were introduced, standardizing planting processes and strictly controlling fruit quality. This achieved a stable mu yield exceeding 1,000 kilograms. The project directly led to nearby employment for 812 people from 182 households, with an average annual household income increase of 12,000 yuan. In 2025, support was further increased with an additional 4.6 million yuan in collaboration funds, planned for a 600-mu industrial supporting project. This focuses on improving key facilities like sorting, packaging, and cold-chain storage, addressing industrial chain weaknesses. The project precisely benefits 431 people from 99 poverty-alleviated households, helping them achieve a per capita monthly labor income of 3,000 yuan. This successfully establishes a virtuous cycle of "Baoshan capital empowering the industry, the industry driving the people to prosperity."
Under the East-West collaboration mechanism, the local area has fully implemented a "company + base + village collective + farmer" development model. This creates a clear division of labor and a complementary industrial system: the company is responsible for seedling cultivation, technical guidance, and product purchase guarantee; the base manages standardized planting; the village collective coordinates resources; and farmers gain dual income through land transfer and local employment. This model effectively absorbs over 160 rural laborers for local employment, with an average annual per capita income increase exceeding 10,000 yuan, continuously solidifying the industrial development foundation.
Relying on Baoshan's continuous support, Gaoliang Township deepens its development path of "specialized planting scaled up, interest linkages tightened, and brand marketing marketized." In 2026, an investment of 6.38 million yuan will build a demonstration base for golden passion fruit specialty planting. A 700-mu standardized orchard will be successfully put into production, with an estimated annual fresh fruit output of 900,000 kilograms and an output value of 7.8 million yuan. This will generate 700,000 yuan in land transfer income and drive employment for 182 farming households, with an average annual household income increase of 20,000 yuan. Concurrently, the promotion of the high-quality "Qinguo 9" variety will significantly improve core quality indicators like single fruit weight and sugar content, enhancing the fruit's market competitiveness. The industrial scale and standardized development prototype are now fully emerging.
Market Bridge-Building for Channel Expansion: From Hidden Treasures to Renowned Brands
Under Baoshan's guidance, Gaoliang Township has improved the entire "production, supply, and marketing" chain for the passion fruit industry. It standardized the construction of a tropical fruit trading market and established a multi-dimensional quality control standard covering fruit appearance, single fruit weight, sugar content, and pesticide residues. Leveraging Shanghai's refined quality control concepts, it creates high-quality passion fruit characterized by "plump shape, controllable sweetness, and green ecology," forming a differentiated market competitive advantage and laying a solid quality foundation for products entering the high-end Shanghai market.
Baoshan District fully leverages its role as a bridge in the East-West collaboration. It guided the local area to set up an e-commerce live-streaming base, cultivate local farmer streamers, and connect with mainstream e-commerce platforms like Pinduoduo and Douyin. In 2024, online sales exceeded 800,000 yuan. In 2025, Baoshan precisely facilitated the appearance of Gaoliang's golden passion fruit at the 8th Shanghai Special Products Exhibition for Paired Regions. Leveraging Shanghai's major exhibition platform, the fruit received over 500 business visitors, connected with 20 high-quality enterprises, and achieved short-term sales of over 50,000 yuan. This significantly boosted the "Gaoliang Golden Fruit" brand's awareness, reputation, and market share in Shanghai, successfully integrating this specialty border-area product into the Shanghai consumer market.
The industry is pushing towards deep processing, breaking the single fresh fruit sales model. Products like passion fruit vinegar, fruit tea, and jam are being developed, enriching the product range and increasing added value. The added value of processed products is over 40% higher than that of fresh fruit. Through continuous promotion on various Shanghai exhibition platforms and trade channels, the regional specialty brand "Gaoliang Golden Fruit" has been successfully established, further strengthening the industry's core competitiveness and achieving a value upgrade from "selling fresh fruit" to "selling brand and quality."
Multi-Dimensional Integration: From a Single Industry to Whole-Region Improvement
Supported by East-West collaboration projects, Gaoliang Township integrates the golden passion fruit industry into the township's 38,100-mu tropical fruit industrial cluster, forming a concentrated development pattern. It innovatively implements a "three-gold" income model, where farmers receive rent for land transfer, wages for local employment, and dividends from collective shares. This has driven over 2,000 people to share in the benefits of industrial development, with a stable average annual household income increase of over 15,000 yuan. Furthermore, relying on Baoshan's support projects, a long-term interest linkage mechanism has been established. In 2025, the project's income of 220,000 yuan will be precisely injected into the village collective economy to develop 46 public welfare positions, such as cleaners and forest rangers, prioritizing employment for poverty-alleviated households, monitored individuals, and disadvantaged groups. This creates a positive cycle of "industry driving employment, employment consolidating poverty alleviation, and collaboration aiding long-term revitalization."
Adhering to the principle of "supporting the industry, but more importantly, cultivating talent," Gaoliang Township uses the standardized passion fruit plantation base as a "field classroom." It conducts regular skill training in planting management, quality control, and e-commerce sales, holding over 50 training sessions and cultivating over 200 new-type professional farmers skilled in technology, management, and sales. Concurrently, it helps nurture 12 rural e-commerce youth teams, motivating returning young entrepreneurs to deeply engage in the rural industry. Through live streaming and online marketing, they promote their hometown's passion fruit, injecting youthful vitality and endogenous dynamism into the rural industry's development.
An innovative "agriculture + cultural tourism" integrated development model has been introduced. Leveraging the large-scale passion fruit plantation, a new rural tourism format combining orchard picking, farming experiences, and rural leisure has been created, attracting over 20,000 tourists annually. This forms a diversified income chain of "fresh fruit sales + experiential services + rural cultural tourism." Through Baoshan's precise and effective East-West collaboration mechanism—from substantial capital investment to build the industrial foundation, to precise market connections to widen income channels, and finally to comprehensive empowerment through talent cultivation and format upgrading—Gaoliang Township's golden passion fruit industry has undergone a magnificent transformation. It has moved from pilot exploration to large-scale development, from a hidden mountain specialty to a famous product in Shanghai, and from single-crop farming to diversified integration. This "golden fruit" is now leading Gaoliang Township towards its goal of becoming a "provincially renowned tropical fruit township."
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