Wuwei vegetables in Gansu are fragrant outside the country.

After the Qingming Festival, spring ploughing began in the Qianli Hexi Corridor, which is located on the Silk Road. Meng Zezhi, a "professional household" in the export of agricultural products, signed a contract with representatives of local farmers' cooperatives to "prepare" vegetable orders for the Central Asian market.

In addition to the number of mu of land and the purchase price, there is also a requirement for "selling phase" of vegetables in the contract with farmers' cooperatives: colored peppers must have three colors, the colors must be pure and cannot be mixed, and the length of pumpkin should be about 7 centimeters, not too long or too curved.

Meng Zezhi, 50, is the president of Gansu Wuwei Agricultural Professional Cooperative and has been in the vegetable distribution business for more than 20 years. After the implementation of "Belt and Road Initiative", he tried to do business abroad-starting with the Central Asian market near the Hexi Corridor.

Meng Zezhi found that vegetables such as colored peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes in his hometown have great market potential in Central Asian countries. When he first started his export business two years ago, he also suffered "losses" because he was not clear enough about foreign standards.

"in the past, the colored peppers we planted could not guarantee the purity of color and size. I didn't understand at that time. I thought that as long as I gave two pounds to the customer, I would be able to get the money I deserved. " Meng Zezhi said that at the time of final delivery, he was picked on by customers in terms of "selling appearance" and finally had to sell at a low price.

With many contacts with foreign customers, coupled with the "painful" experience of being underpriced, Meng Zezhi has now summed up a set of ways to ensure a good "selling appearance" of vegetables: "in the past, our colored pepper seeds cost three or four cents, but now they are all imported. One costs 80 cents.

Meng Zezhi took a bag of seeds the size of a slap but worth nearly 1,000 yuan to get even with the reporter: "in the past, each seed could only produce 1 kilogram of colored peppers, but now it can produce more than 4 kilograms, and the selling price has doubled."

Meng Zezhi invited technicians to guide farmers, compiled a planting manual and sent it to farmers, stipulating that the error of row spacing and plant spacing of vegetables was no more than two centimeters.

His approach has won the approval and support of local farmers. Xu Ercai, representative of the cooperative in Yanglu Village, Suwu Township, Minqin County, Wuwei City, signed a contract with Meng Zezhi this year for the cultivation of export vegetables with 100 greenhouses, which is preliminarily estimated to bring an average income of 60,000 yuan to 100 farmers in the cooperative. Xu Ercai said: "although there are more things to worry about than before, but we can make more money, we are very motivated to grow."