Consultation Draft 20210515

Reportage “The ‘Three Rural Issues’ Aircraft Carrier Ploughs Through the Waves”

Original: Cheng Zhanxin

Focus (3): “Cruiser” — Funing’s Forestry and Fruit Industry, Yanshan Chestnuts

Funing District is a major production area for “Yanshan Chestnuts” and “Bohai Bay Apples.” The chestnut and apple industries are the district’s pillar sectors in forestry and fruit cultivation, accounting for 73.7% of the region’s total orchard acreage. Chestnuts are primarily grown in the northern mountainous areas along the Great Wall, in Taiying Town and Daxinzhai Town, on poor, infertile soils; apples are concentrated in the central hilly regions of Daxinzhai, Taiying, Yuguan, and Fentuo, creating a tiered planting pattern: chestnuts in the northern mountains, apples in the central hills, and a mix of heat‑loving fruits on the shallow plains of the southeast. Well‑known fruit brands include “Yanshan Mingzhu” and “Tianyang” chestnuts. The “Tianyang” trademark has been recognized as a Famous Trademark of Hebei Province, while “Yanshan Mingzhu” candied chestnut kernels have been designated a Brand‑Name Product for Small and Medium‑Sized Enterprises in Hebei. Daxinzhai’s “Jinfuning” apples won the “Fruit King” title at the Langfang International Agricultural Products Fair for three consecutive years. Yuguan Town’s “Anxin” apples earned the Gold Award at the Langfang International Agricultural Products Fair in both 2016 and 2017. Brands such as “Tianyang,” “Yanshan Mingzhu,” “Wanghangou Yellow Peaches,” and “Anxin” have repeatedly claimed the “Fruit King” title at the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei Fruit King Competition.

　　The chestnut industry, one of Funing District’s three signature pillar sectors in agriculture, has effectively boosted the incomes of farmers in the northern mountainous region. Each year, during the chestnut harvest season, tens of thousands of “chestnut growers” set aside their urban jobs or other sources of income and return without hesitation to their mountain villages, working from dawn till dusk on the chestnut‑laden hillsides. The revenue generated from selling chestnuts can add several thousand yuan, tens of thousands of yuan, or even over a hundred thousand yuan to a family’s annual earnings. Qinhuangdao Yanshan Chestnut Food Co., Ltd.—a national model farmer cooperative and a key leading enterprise in Hebei Province’s agricultural industrialization—commonly known as “Yanshan Chestnut,” is frequently cited for its contributions to the development of Funing’s chestnut industry. Naturally, this prompts the author to pay a special visit to Yanshan Chestnut.

Chinese chestnuts in the Yanshan Mountains

On March 11, 2021—Lunar New Year’s Day, the twenty-eighth day of the first lunar month—the weather was slightly chilly. My delegation arrived at Qinhuangdao Yanshan Chestnut Food Co., Ltd., located in the Funing Economic Development Zone. As soon as we entered the premises, we were struck by the towering red banners and slogans emblazoned across the factory grounds: “Quality Forges Our Brand, Integrity Weaves Our Future” and “China’s Chestnuts Are Grown in the Yanshan Mountains,” filling us with great joy. Inside the conference room, Ma Zhiyong, the company’s executive deputy general manager, and Zhang Penghui, the office director, welcomed us for our interview.

“Our company has been designated by the Hebei Provincial People’s Government as a key leading enterprise in agricultural industrialization, and in 2020 our annual turnover reached 100 million yuan…” Ma Zhiyong said enthusiastically. At this point, the true identity of a private enterprise gradually came into view before the author.

Qinhuangdao Yanshan Chestnut Food Co., Ltd. was established in 2005 as a privately owned joint-stock enterprise with a registered capital of RMB 10 million. It is a comprehensive chestnut production and marketing company integrating chestnut cultivation, procurement, storage, processing, and sales. The company serves as the core leading enterprise for the deep-processing, export-oriented chestnut industry in Qinhuangdao City and a key exporter, while also holding the status of a provincial-level agricultural industrialization consortium leader in Hebei Province. In April 2020, it was awarded the “Hebei Premium Brand” by the Hebei Provincial Commercial Brands Association; in December 2020, it was designated a “Key Leading Enterprise for Agricultural Industrialization in Hebei Province” by the Hebei Provincial People’s Government.

Qinhuangdao Yanshan Chestnut Food Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Yanshan Chestnut”) provides nearly 500 jobs annually and supports nearly 50,000 farming households. While addressing the issue of slow sales for Funing chestnuts, it has directly increased chestnut farmers’ incomes by more than RMB 26 million and generated over RMB 40 million in socio‑economic benefits through employment and related ancillary industries. After more than a decade of dedicated effort and perseverance, the company has established large‑scale production in the chestnut sector, steadily expanded both domestic and international markets, and has been recognized by the Hebei Province Chestnut Association as one of the top three enterprises in its industry within the province.

“Yanshan Chestnuts” are primarily sold in high-end retail outlets across China and are also exported to Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, the United States, Canada, as well as regions such as Hong Kong and Taiwan. Amid global economic headwinds, the company has prioritized stabilizing the domestic market while accelerating its expansion into international markets, thereby establishing a market strategy that fosters mutual reinforcement between domestic and international “dual circulation.”

　　In 2019, Yanshan Chestnut Co., Ltd. processed 5,000 tons of chestnuts and generated sales revenue of RMB 69.96 million. Its annual export value has grown from an initial US$2 million to over US$7 million today. Despite the global spread of COVID‑19 in 2020, the company maintained steady growth, with its core business posting an average annual growth rate of 19%.

Yanshan Chestnut Company has established 48 cooperative chestnut‑growing bases across the main chestnut‑producing regions, covering nearly 200,000 mu of land, including 48,000 mu of organic farms. Grounded in the chestnut industry, the company takes chestnut cultivation as its foundation and deep‑processing and marketing as its driving force, adopting a business model of “company + base + consortium + farmer households” to promote the large‑scale, industrialized development of chestnut production. At the base level, village‑level agreements titled “Chestnut Planting Base Cooperation Agreements” are signed with the company, and village representatives are appointed as on‑site managers responsible for the day‑to‑day operations of each base.

Led by “Yanshan Chestnut” Company and in collaboration with three upstream and downstream enterprises, including Funing Qian’ao Yantai Food Co., Ltd., the “Qinhuangdao City Funing District Yanshan Chestnut Fruit Processing Industry Consortium” was established, bringing together ten farmer cooperatives and family farms—such as the Jinyuan Chestnut Production and Marketing Specialized Cooperative of Funing County—as its founding members. This consortium has been recognized as a “Provincial-Level Demonstration Agricultural Industrialization Consortium.” By developing chestnut‑based cultivation, procurement and storage, processing, deep‑processing, and an e‑commerce platform, it has evolved into a tightly integrated organizational alliance characterized by close linkages, clear division of labor, and a complete industrial chain, underpinned by a transparent, stable, and well‑structured mechanism for aligning interests.

As the leading enterprise of the consortium, “Yanshan Chestnut” Company not only develops its own cultivation bases but also works through the farmer‑run cooperatives and large specialized growers within the consortium to further expand and refine chestnut‑growing operations. The company actively provides modern agricultural inputs and management models to these cooperatives, large-scale operators, and individual farmers, transforming traditional farming practices and management approaches. This drives the rapid industrialization of chestnut cultivation, enabling farmers to adopt standardized production methods aligned with processing‑enterprise standards, thereby preventing supply‑demand imbalances at the source and avoiding unnecessary losses for producers.

“Yanshan Chestnut” Company establishes stable supply-and-demand relationships with chestnut farmers by entering into legally binding purchase-and-sale contracts that specify the methods of product delivery, quality standards, quantities, and service provisions. Through “contract farming,” it implements a mechanism that aligns production and marketing interests. At the same time, the company forms stakeholder entities based on farmers’ equity contributions to production bases and cooperatives, fostering a model of “shared benefits and shared risks.” By adopting dividend distributions tied to shareholdings and secondary rebates, it ensures that farmers capture a greater share of the value-added gains generated in the secondary and tertiary sectors.

“Yanshan Chestnut” Company annually supplies the base with a specified quantity of chestnut seeds, seedlings, and scions for planting and grafting; each year, it invites experts to organize more than two specialized training sessions for farmers at the base, introducing modern agricultural production inputs, operational practices, and management techniques. The company’s registered “Yanshan Mingzhu” brand candied chestnut kernels have been recognized as a Qinhuangdao specialty food, a renowned brand product of small and medium-sized enterprises in Hebei Province, and a high-quality product of Hebei Province; meanwhile, the “Tianyang” trademark has been awarded the 4A‑level “Hebei Excellent Brand” designation.

“Yanshan Chestnut” Company has enthusiastically responded to the call of the District Party Committee and District Government, investing 1 million yuan in 2020 to replace its boilers with natural-gas-fired units that meet the strictest atmospheric emission standards. While driving the development of the chestnut industry, the company has also actively engaged in new‑rural construction, contributing to the greening of mountainous areas.

The development of the “Yanshan Chestnut” company demonstrates that its “protagonist” not only possesses a modern, locally adapted mindset, a strong sense of responsibility, and brand awareness, but also a forward‑looking vision and a commitment to scientific research. The company’s independently developed carbonization‑based chestnut shelling equipment has likewise earned widespread acclaim.

　　High‑temperature carbonization furnace. Chestnuts are fed into the furnace, where they undergo high‑temperature carbonization at 1,000°C. A screw conveyor then transports the carbonized chestnuts to a peeling machine for rubbing and peeling. The equipment can process 500–600 kilograms of Yanshan Mountain chestnuts per hour. This system is suitable for processing oil‑chestnuts sourced from Hebei, Shandong, Henan, Hubei, Anhui, Guangxi, Yunnan, and other producing regions.

　　Peeling machine. The carbonized chestnuts are fed into the peeling machine, where four rubber rollers rub against each other to separate the outer shell and inner skin from the nutmeat.

Chestnut kernel–husk separator. After being tumbled in the husking machine, the chestnuts are fed into the separator, where a water‑flow separation process is used to separate the rubbed kernels from the husks. The kernels are then manually sorted before being sent to the next processing stage.

Blanching machine: The manually sorted chestnut kernels are fed into the blanching machine and subjected to hot water at 100°C for approximately 4 minutes, bringing them to about 50% doneness—ideal for quick-freezing and for use in canned sweetened chestnuts.

Cleaning machine. The blanched chestnut kernels are fed into the washing machine, where the high-speed rotation of the brush rollers combined with water effectively removes surface “scorched spots” and other foreign matter.

The advantages of the “carbonization‑method chestnut shelling machine” are as follows: First, the carbonization main unit boasts excellent thermal insulation, significantly reducing energy consumption. It features a high‑temperature furnace chamber constructed from refractory and insulating materials commonly used in glass kilns, further clad with a 10‑centimeter‑thick premium zirconium‑containing aluminosilicate blanket, keeping the exterior surface temperature around 30°C. The furnace body is exceptionally durable, with a service life of up to 10 years. Second, it can process chestnuts from any origin and in any size grade, producing both raw chestnut kernels suitable for cooking or soup‑making and roasted chestnut kernels. Third, it offers high efficiency at low cost, with processing fees of approximately RMB 1,500 per ton for Grade‑A chestnut kernels from Hebei. The “Yanshan Chestnut” has shown me what agricultural industrialization, mechanization, and modernization truly entail.

The growth of any team, organization, or enterprise is inseparable from the qualities, vision, passion, convictions, and sense of responsibility of its leader. As the saying goes, “It’s easy to gather a thousand soldiers, but hard to find a single commander.” The remarkable expansion and sound, steady development of Yanshan Chestnut Co., Ltd. naturally lead one to think of the company’s head—the “captain” of this strategic vessel.

　　Office Director Zhang Penghui stated, “The general manager’s name is Zhang Tie’an.”

Zhang Tie’an, currently the legal representative and general manager of Qinhuangdao Yanshan Chestnut Food Co., Ltd. and chairman of the Funing County Limin Agricultural and Sideline Products Production and Marketing Specialized Cooperative, was elected a deputy to the Qinhuangdao Municipal People’s Congress in February 2012 and has served in that capacity ever since. He has been honored by provincial and municipal authorities with titles such as “Pioneer of Rural Economic Development,” “Outstanding Farmer Entrepreneur,” and “Outstanding Private Entrepreneur.” The cooperative he leads has been recognized by the Ministry of Agriculture as a “National Model Farmer Cooperative.”

Zhang Tie’an, who previously served as a sales representative, purchaser, deputy director, factory director of a food‑canning plant, and director of a supply‑and‑marketing cooperative’s freezing plant, has come to deeply appreciate, through the annual Central No. 1 Document, the vital importance of agriculture, rural areas, and farmers—the “three rural issues”—to social development and the well‑being of the people. Faced with hundreds of thousands of mu of chestnut orchards in the northern mountainous region of Funing, Zhang Tie’an not only recognized the business opportunities but also felt a strong sense of responsibility and commitment. Drawing on his past management experience, accumulated capital, and extensive network of contacts, he harbors an ambitious vision: to serve the people, benefit the people, and contribute to their prosperity, sparing no effort to grow and strengthen the chestnut industry. From raw‑material production to procurement, processing, storage, and sales, he maintains rigorous oversight at every stage. Zhang Tie’an consistently places the interests of chestnut farmers and the broader public first, providing technical services right down to the village, household, and field level. His efforts have taken him to every chestnut‑producing village in Funing, while he has also expanded into Qianxi, Zunhua, and beyond—to Beijing, Handan, Xingtai, Shandong, and other regions—gaining an intimate understanding of all major chestnut‑growing areas.

Focus on enhancing quality at the source. Throughout the chestnut‑producing regions, distinct technical strengths have emerged. Drawing on his professional network and leveraging his access to expertise from across the country, Zhang Tie’an has dedicated himself to serving the chestnut farmers of his hometown, Funing, transforming technical know-how into economic value and boosting local incomes. At his own expense, he has engaged experts and technicians from Hebei Forestry College, the Changli Fruit Research Institute, and municipal and county forestry bureaus, while also enlisting seasoned chestnut growers from Qianxi and within Funing County to train a broad base of local chestnut producers. He provides on‑site instruction in pruning techniques, offers free informational materials and technical publications, and actively promotes the steady, sustainable development of Funing’s chestnut industry.

Providing chestnut farmers with peace of mind. Zhang Tie’an is well aware that chestnut production is directly tied to market sales; when the market slumps, there is a serious risk of widespread uprooting of chestnut trees. Among farmers, this often leads to a herd‑like response: if one farmer gives in, others follow suit—destroying their own trees without regard for economic principles or supply‑and‑demand dynamics. Should any link in the production‑supply‑sales chain falter, the enterprise’s operations could suffer a fatal blow. To address farmers’ concerns, Zhang Tie’an has made this a top priority: he has established purchasing stations in major producing areas and, in spring, signs guaranteed‑minimum‑price contracts with growers. Under these agreements, during the autumn harvest, if market prices are low, purchases are made at the contracted rate; if prices are high, they are paid at the prevailing market price. This reassurance encourages farmers to expand chestnut cultivation and boosts their enthusiasm for the industry. By implementing this guaranteed‑price purchasing scheme, the company now handles nearly 2,000 tons of chestnuts annually.

　　Quality builds the brand, and integrity secures the future. “Yanshan Chestnut” has registered seven trademarks and holds independent design patents, while establishing partnerships with research institutes and universities to develop a comprehensive product portfolio, strengthen brand building, and capture and segment niche markets. Its proprietary “Yanshan Mingzhu” brand of candied chestnut kernels has been recognized as a Qinhuangdao specialty food, a renowned brand among small and medium-sized enterprises in Hebei Province, and a high‑quality product of Hebei Province; meanwhile, the “Tianyang” trademark has been awarded the 4A‑level “Hebei Excellent Brand” designation.

“Yanshan Chestnuts” reign supreme along the shores of the Bohai Bay, a true hallmark of the Yanshan mountain range.

　　First, the region enjoys a superior geographical setting: the main production area of “Yanshan Chestnuts” is situated in the eastern section of the Yanshan Mountains in Qinhuangdao, with the Yanshan Range to the north and the Bohai Sea to the south. It is the only major chestnut-producing area in China where the Yanshan Mountains meet the sea. The natural topography—characterized by high mountains and tidal influences—creates a diurnal temperature range of approximately 13°C, which promotes high sugar content and a glutinous, sticky flesh. The chestnuts also feature low starch and high protein levels, a rich aroma, and easily removable astringent skins, making them ideal for roasting.

　　Second, it is rich in nutrients: The Yanshan Mountains boast abundant mineral resources, including gold, copper, and iron, while the soil, composed of high-quality gneiss, nurtures premium chestnut raw materials, which are packed with calcium, iron, zinc, selenium, and a variety of other vitamins and minerals.

　　Third, our signature products lead the market: After years of rigorous experimentation, refinement, and iteration, we have developed a production process that delivers the very best results—introducing China’s first 121°C‑steamed chestnuts. This innovative approach addresses many of the shortcomings of traditional sugar‑roasted chestnuts, preserving the chestnut’s distinctive flavor and nutritional value while locking in freshness without compromising quality. Building on this redefined 121°C‑steamed chestnut, we were the first to launch the new frozen “Bingli” product under the “Kai Kou Xiao” brand, securing trademark registration for “Bingli” in 2016. The product has been warmly embraced by consumers nationwide, offering a green, natural frozen snack that appeals to all ages during the sweltering summer months.

In 2020, Yanshan Chestnut Co., Ltd. was awarded the “Specialized, Refined, Distinctive, and Innovative” SME honor by Hebei Province and was recognized as a “High-Tech Enterprise” by the Hebei Provincial Department of Science and Technology, the Hebei Provincial Department of Finance, and the Hebei Provincial Tax Service Bureau.

The steady development of “Yanshan Chestnuts,” along with their current scale and profitability, is attributable to the sound leadership of the Party and the government, to the natural beauty of Funing’s mountains and waters, and to the hardworking people of Funing. Under the leadership of Zhang Tie’an, guided by a spirit of gratitude and taking into account Funing’s specific conditions and the company’s business operations, the “Funing County Limin Agricultural and Sideline Products Production and Marketing Specialized Cooperative” was established. This cooperative adopts a production model of “association + company + cooperative + base + farmer households,” balancing interests, integrating resources, and promoting intensive production, thereby maximizing both farmers’ and enterprises’ benefits and achieving win‑win or multi‑win outcomes.

Reflection:

Yanshan chestnuts are truly impressive—working with local chestnut farmers to establish a dedicated production base.

Thoughtful services bolster industries, and skill transfer boosts profitability.

People’s deputies serve the people, and rural revitalization is a grand undertaking.

Tie An always harbors a heart of gratitude, dedicating his sincere devotion and noble righteousness.

The evening glow paints half the sky crimson—though old, the steed still dreams of a thousand miles!

　　Author: Cheng Zhanxin, a member of the Chinese Poetry Society, the Hebei Writers Association, the Hebei Online Writers Association, and the Hebei Literary Critics Association; Deputy Secretary-General of the Qinhuangdao Writers Association; Chairman of the Funing District Writers Association and the Funing District Online Writers Association; Executive Editor-in-Chief of the literary quarterly “Tianma”; Executive Editor-in-Chief of “A History of Development in the Old Revolutionary Base Areas of Funing District, Qinhuangdao City”; and webmaster of the “Tianma Original Literature Website.”