Southeast Asia Information Port News (www.dnyxxg.com) Located at 38° North latitude, within the world's golden agricultural belt, and blessed with over 3,000 hours of sunshine annually and a 15°C diurnal temperature range, Minqin County in Wuwei City, Gansu Province, an oasis surrounded by the Tengger and Badain Jaran Deserts, is writing a new chapter in its industrial miracle of transforming "sea of sand into gold fields."
In the height of summer, the melons in Minqin are nearing harvest. National geographical indication products such as "Golden Red Treasure," "Silver Stem," and "Jade Golden Fragrance" are highly popular with consumers. Minqin melons, known for their "crispness like a snow pear, sweetness like honey, and juice like clear spring water," have passed green food certification, with an annual output value exceeding 2.1 billion yuan. The local government has innovatively constructed a three-tiered system of "cooperatives linking production bases and leading farmers," integrating 50,000 farmers into the industrial chain, making the melon industry a pillar industry for wealth creation, accounting for over one-third of the county's agricultural output.
In Xingsheng Village, Minqin County, melon farmer Gan Qiang and his wife harvest melons before sunrise. At the end of the fields, a cooperative's agricultural tricycle transports the melons to the distribution center.
In recent years, Minqin County, leveraging its resource advantages, has proactively adapted to modern market demands, continuously optimizing its planting structure, focusing on quality improvement and brand creation, and promoting the melon industry's transformation towards green and organic practices and higher-quality development. Currently, melon cultivation has become the leading industry in Minqin's agriculture and a major source of income for farmers, with a stable planting area of 160,000 mu (approximately 10,000 hectares) and an annual output of 500,000 tons.
Supporting the industry's growth is the reformist spirit that breaks down town boundaries.
Minqin County has innovatively constructed a "new type of agricultural business entity + base + farmer" linkage mechanism, integrating scattered plots of land. More than 300 farmer professional cooperatives have taken root in the fertile soil, connecting and driving nearly 20,000 farmers to form a production and sales alliance, effectively breaking down administrative barriers. Today, the melon industry belt spans towns and villages, traversing sandy terrain and ravines, achieving large-scale and intensive development.
Furthermore, Minqin County strictly implements the "five unified" production standards: unified supply of improved varieties, technical procedures, water and fertilizer management, monitoring and supervision, and brand sales. It also strengthens the "five controls" quality assurance system: controlling fertilizer use and increasing efficiency, controlling pesticide substitution with biotechnology, controlling water usage with precise metering, controlling disease early warning and joint prevention, and controlling soil pollution and conservation. This has established a closed-loop management system encompassing pre-production source control, in-production technical constraints, and post-production quality traceability, deeply promoting the green and organic transformation of the industry.
Currently, Minqin melons have formed five major varieties, including early, mid, and late-maturing types and multiple fruit shapes, meeting diverse market demands. The shelf life extends from late June to mid-September, effectively filling supply gaps in other production areas and precisely aligning with the peak summer and autumn consumption season, strongly guaranteeing market supply.
Based on the realities of the sandy area, Minqin County has established a scientific "think tank" led by provincial and municipal chief experts, scientifically formulating and issuing the "Minqin Melon Group Standard," setting stringent standards for the production process. Meanwhile, taking into account the unique local climate and soil conditions, five innovative green cultivation models, including plastic film mulching and solar greenhouses, have been integrated, significantly improving the quality and profitability of the melons.
Furthermore, maintaining a good reputation for quality is a priority at every stage, from the field to the market.
The Minqin County Harvest Town Melon Production and Marketing Association actively promotes standardized production and sales practices, explicitly requiring growers to strictly control harvesting time to ensure the melons reach maturity; to use fertilizers and pesticides scientifically, and to prohibit the use of prohibited pesticides and growth promoters, ensuring the green safety and pure taste of the melons from the source. Buyers are required to adhere to the principle of "premium price for premium melons," strictly screening and refusing to purchase unripe melons, jointly maintaining the good brand image of "Minqin Melon" and ensuring that every melon reaching the market is of superior quality.
Chen Fang, Deputy Director of the Minqin County Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau, explained that Minqin County has issued special support policies for five consecutive years, providing financial subsidies and loan interest subsidies in areas such as variety improvement and production-market matching. The newly implemented "Minqin County 2025 Muskmelon Unified Packaging Subsidy Measures" provides appropriate subsidies for the standardized use of packaging boxes bearing the "Minqin Muskmelon" logo, the "Minqingyuan" regional public brand, the "Ganwei" trademark, and traceability QR codes. This aims to comprehensively enhance the brand awareness and influence of the regional public brand and effectively promote standardized production and branded marketing of muskmelons.
From standard setting and production management to market circulation, Minqin County, through meticulous control throughout the entire process, makes "quality" the "passport" for Minqin muskmelons to win in the market, continuously polishing the "golden signboard" of this industry that enriches the people.
"The muskmelons purchased today are of excellent quality and taste, sure to win over customers," said Liang Tingrui, head of the Minqin County Shengyue Specialty Industry Service Professional Cooperative Union, while directing workers to sort, bag, package, and label the harvested muskmelons, leveraging the "Internet+" express to sell them nationwide.
To expand the market radius of muskmelons, Minqin County is focusing on building a modern marketing system.
The county actively integrates the "storage, processing, transportation, and sales" model with the "Internet+" model. Through hosting a melon festival, it has partnered with well-known e-commerce platforms and supply chain companies to create the "E-commerce Minqin" brand, implementing nationwide online sales and leveraging both online and offline channels. This has propelled Minqin melons, grown in the desert, to become bestsellers in over 20 provinces and municipalities across China, and exported to countries such as the UK, Canada, Thailand, and Malaysia.
"Minqin County has established a full-chain, value-added industrial development model 'from soil to table,' forming a 'six-in-one' coordinated industrial structure encompassing improved seed breeding, base construction, standardized production, marketing, brand building, and quality traceability," said Chen Fang. She added that the county will further strengthen technological support, deepen cooperation with research institutions, promote water-saving irrigation and intelligent management technologies, and overcome bottlenecks in preservation, storage, and cold chain logistics. By attracting and cultivating leading deep-processing enterprises, the county will focus on the comprehensive utilization of leftover melons, developing diversified ready-to-eat foods, extending the industrial chain, increasing the added value of the "sweet industry," and benefiting more farmers. (End)
