Tang Baoping: from "City Man" to "Blueberry Queen"

On the morning of May 25, the Women's Federation of Yizheng City, Jiangsu Province held a grand commendation ceremony for "the most beautiful entrepreneurial women". Tang Baoping, general manager of Yangzhou Lanyun Ecological Agriculture Co., Ltd., who has the reputation of "queen of blueberries in Yangzhou", won the title of "the most beautiful entrepreneurial woman". Everyone who knows Tang Baoping knows that this honor is well deserved. It is this frail appearance of the city woman, after untold hardships, successfully let the United States "king of berries"-blueberry take root Yizheng, become a real estate fruit in Yangzhou area.

On a hill in Zaolin Bay, Yizheng City, patches of green shrubs are regularly planted in the ridges. The wind blows through the early summer, and people can't help but reach out to pick the small blue-purple berries on the shrubs. The owner of this more than 70 mu blueberry garden is Tang Baoping.

Tourists pick in the orchard

Blueberry queen Tang Baoping

As an authentic "city dweller", before 2012, Tang Baoping was a businessman engaged in communications equipment and knew almost nothing about agriculture. That year, when Tang Baoping came into contact with blueberries while sending her son to study in the United States, she knew for the first time that the famous American "king of berries" was so nutritious and charming.

Blueberries are called the king of berries not only because they are rich in protein and vitamins, but also because they are rich in minerals and trace elements. Ripe blueberries are blue-purple mainly because they are rich in anthocyanins. Anthocyanins have strong antioxidant effect and are beneficial to health. Therefore, blueberry has very high nutritional value and ornamental value. In the world, it is also known as the 'fruit queen'. When it comes to blueberries, Tang Baoping's tongue can't be closed. After all, she has been spending time with this blueberry garden for four years, and she likes this charming fruit too much.

The road to entrepreneurship is fraught with difficulties. To introduce blueberries to Yangzhou. Tang Baoping put all her money and energy into growing blueberries and suffered a lot as a result.

"there are many varieties of blueberries that I have never touched before, and no one in Yangzhou has planted them, so we still don't know which varieties are suitable for growing in Yangzhou, and I don't know if they will succeed in the end." Speaking of the original exploration, Tang Baoping also has too many stories. In fact, because the soil was not suitable, forestry experts advised Tang Baoping to give up the development of blueberries. "I took the soil to Nanjing and asked experts from the Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences to look at it for me. They said at that time that our soil was paddy soil, so it was not suitable to grow blueberries."

However, Tang Baoping's character is "persistent". It is difficult for her to give up what she has decided. Since 2012, Tang Baoping has investigated more than 10 famous blueberry planting bases across the country, and established Yangzhou Lanyun Ecological Agriculture Co., Ltd. in May 2013, planting more than 3000 blueberries of more than 10 varieties imported from the United States.

"although the blueberry tree is small, the price is a veritable 'queen'. Like a bigger blueberry tree, each costs 60 yuan. I bought more than 3000 trees at once, and this item alone costs nearly 200000 yuan." Tang Baoping and through technical consultation, gradually overcome the problem of soil quality of blueberry trees. Now her blueberry tree has been fully hung and can be put on the market in large quantities, and the most expensive one can be sold for 200 yuan per kilogram.

According to reports, fresh blueberries from Lanyun Blueberry Garden can now be bought in many supermarkets in Yangzhou area. in order to expand the market and so that more people can eat fresh blueberries, Tang Baoping developed her blueberry sales to the Internet. Taobao opened an online store, Baidu glutinous rice started group buying, and sales were hot. She also went to Yunnan, Guangdong and other places to find suitable blueberry processing equipment and technology. Tang Baoping said: "the industrial chain of blueberries is very long. In the future, in addition to making blueberry fresh fruit supply and leisure picking, we will also process blueberry drinks and food, so that more people can understand this' foreign 'fruit and feel its charm."