On October 18, the Agricultural and Rural Affairs Bureau of Guyuan City, Ningxia, shared exciting news about this year’s harvest. A staggering 500,000 acres of cool-season vegetables have yielded a bountiful crop, supported by multiple promotional events aimed at attracting investment in agricultural tourism. As a result, products like Chinese broccoli, cabbage, broccoli, celery, peppers, and shiitake mushrooms are in high demand nationwide, with the total industry chain output value projected to exceed 4.5 billion yuan.

Despite being mid-October, the vegetable farms in Guyuan are buzzing with activity as farmers rush to harvest their second crop. “In previous years, the price for a kilogram of cauliflower was only around 1 to 1.2 yuan. This year, it’s selling for over 4 yuan per kilogram—the price has more than tripled,” said Wang Anmin, the manager of a vegetable greenhouse in Longde County. “We’ve planted over 2,300 acres of cool-season vegetables this year, with expected annual sales surpassing 20 million yuan—a 50% increase from last year. Our vegetable yields and sales are the best they’ve been in a decade.”

In recent years, Guyuan has focused on establishing a premier national production base for high-quality cool-season vegetables during the summer and autumn months. The city has launched the “Liupan Mountain Cool Vegetable” regional public brand and developed four major areas: suburban vegetables from Yuanzhou District, highland celery from Xiji County, cool-season open-field vegetables from Longde County, and summer peppers from Pengyang County. They have constructed 60 standardized vegetable production bases, 60 permanent vegetable production bases, 10 direct supply bases for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area, and 30 large-scale cold storage facilities.

Moreover, over 200 agricultural product processing enterprises from Guyuan participated in specialty product trade fairs, along with more than a hundred promotional activities for agricultural tourism in cities like Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Xi’an, Fuzhou, and Chengdu. This effort has helped ensure that 80% of the region’s cool-season vegetables are sold to markets in North China, Central China, South China, and Southwest China.

Today, cool-season vegetables have become a hallmark of Guyuan, emerging as a key industry for increasing farmers’ incomes and wealth. To better navigate market trends and enhance competitiveness, Guyuan is investing in the construction of wholesale markets and marketing systems. They are developing a comprehensive marketing network that includes wholesale markets, purchasing points, cooperative marketing organizations, and major distributors. Additionally, methods such as production and sales cooperation, joint base construction, contract farming, and online sales are employed for dynamic market regulation. Currently, there are nearly 150 new economic entities associated with the vegetable industry in Guyuan, providing a robust and versatile sales channel to stabilize vegetable production.