In 2021, Li Tiangen will be 60 years old.
"Old Onion Head" drove a black Land Rover and came to his shallot field at noon on the last day of 2020. He and the reporter met here.
"It's too cold, and the soil is frozen. The green onions can't be dug, so let's sell them later. "The onion land is located on the south bank of the Qiantang River in Hangzhou, the cold tide is coming, the western style is cold, and the Shandong green onion stands proudly, green and fat.
These days
Shandong people rely on Zhejiang farmers to eat green onions
The wind was too strong, penetrating the clothes and blowing cold all over the body. There was no shelter in the green onion field, and the wind was ventilated on all sides, so there was no way to stay, so I quickly hid back in the car to avoid the cold.
As soon as he got on the bus, Li Tiangen received a call from Jiangsu onion friends, "Oh, you guys rudong green onions have now sold for 3.2 yuan a pound." We're here, and we're going to sell it in a few days. ”
Why wait? In addition to the cold onions are not easy to dig, the main reason is that the northwest wind is blowing, the sky is sunny, the water of the green onions evaporates quickly, and the onions of an acre of land are dug up, and the amount is at least 1,000 pounds less; in addition, after New Year's Day, the onions in Zhejiang will fade the spicy taste and become sweet and sticky.
Zhejiang people consume very little green onions, and local green onions are mainly sold to Shandong. In December, Shandong has deep snow, and the green onions cannot be produced by themselves, and the green onions in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian and other places will be listed for Shandong. Generally, Jiangsu scallions are sold in December, Zhejiang green onions are sold after New Year's Day, and will always be sold until April of the next year, while Shandong local scallions will not resume production until May.
Zhejiang onion farmers have a saying that goes like this: In the next few days, whether Shandong people can happily eat pancake rolls and scallions mainly depends on Zhejiang farmers.
Shallot price "salted fish turned over"
Has broken 3 yuan / catty
In the past few days, many green onion buyers in Shandong have called Li Tiangen, and the purchase price is 2.8 to 3 yuan / catty.
However, the "old onion" is still slow to sell, and his current psychological price is 3 yuan ~ 3.2 yuan / catty. Of course, whether the subsequent market price will rise is unknown.
In 2019, the highest purchase price of green onions was only 0.6 yuan / catty, and later affected by the epidemic, it fell to more than 0.1 yuan / catty. In fact, the purchase price of green onion land in the country is less than 1 yuan / catty, which has been maintained for 3 years. Li Tiangen planted 600 acres of green onions last year, and the highest price was 0.5 yuan / catty, which also lost a lot of money.
This year, the sharp rise in the price of green onions across the country stems from the overdraft production of farmers around the country in previous years, but this year it has grown less.
Farmers in the reclamation area on the south bank of the Qiantang River have always had the tradition of growing green onions.
According to the statistics of the local agricultural department, when the area was the largest, 30,000 acres of green onions were planted in the reclamation area. With the advancement of urban construction, the planting area of green onions has remained at about 15,000 mu in recent years, and in 2020, it has seriously shrunk to only 4,000 mu.
The price of green onions has been too low for several consecutive years, and many people dare not plant them again this year. Li Tiangen has been planting green onions in reclamation for 15 years, which is the largest area planted in the local area, and this year he is also very conservative, planting only 200 acres.
200 acres of green onions
Gross profit can exceed 5 million yuan
The green onions purchased by Tanabe are all mud-footed. Buyers in Shandong will process them into pure shallots and sell them to the retail market.
"I knew that the market was so good this year, I had a variety of points, miscalculated."
Li Tiangen calculated an account for the reporter, the cost of scallion planting is more than 1 million yuan, including land rent, seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, labor, etc., of which rent and labor are the majority.
The yield of one mu of green onions is 11,000 to 12,000 jin, Li Tiangen has planted 15,000 jin/mu at the highest level, and the highest record for planting green onions in the country is 18,000 jin/mu.
Li Tiangen estimated this year's profit: "200 acres of green onions can be sold for 6.7 million yuan, excluding the comprehensive cost of planting land, the gross profit should exceed 5 million yuan." ”
Such a good market has not been encountered for several years. I remember that the last time was in 2016, the green onion sold for up to 3.7 yuan / catty, but unfortunately Li Tiangen only planted 200 acres that year.
"Old onion" plans to excavate in half a month, because the overall situation of the lack of green onions in the country this year has been determined, and he is still quite optimistic about the next market.
If you want to be white, you want to be white
Four manual soil cultivations are required
In the reclamation area, most of the farmers who planted green onions planted dozens of acres, and there were three or four families that planted 100 acres together, and those with more than 100 acres were considered large households.
Yu Yinfeng, who is engaged in the local machinery leasing business, has also followed the trend and planted dozens of acres of green onions. Although the main business is engineering, planting onions is only a side business, but Yu Yinfeng is still very careful in planting.
When the onions reach 15 centimeters in may last year, they are dug up and cut off the leaves, and then planted back into the ground. Yu Yinfeng wanted to organize dozens of workers to work together.
The green onions we eat, the white onions, are buried in the ground and constantly cultivated to turn white.
The soil layer at the root of the shallot will eventually rise 50 cm above the ground. Throughout the growing season, it is necessary to artificially cultivate the soil 4 times, all of which are operated in the middle of summer, and the hardship can be imagined.
In December, the Zhejiang green onion, which has grown for more than half a year, finally matured.
Recently, Yu Yinfeng sent beautiful photos of his green onions in the circle of friends every day, waiting for buyers to come to the door to purchase. According to this year's market, he calculated that he should be able to earn 2 million yuan.
(The original title was "The People of Shandong Are Eagerly Looking Forward to the Qiantang River by the Bull Gas "Onion" Heaven.") Edited by Ding Shan)