On March 4, Ji Guiling, a National People's Congress deputy and chairperson of the Yulin City Mizhi County Gaojian Guiling Apple Planting Cooperative, shared insights on advancing rural specialty industries through localized development of red apples. She emphasized the dual focus on "cultivating high quality" and "achieving strong sales."

In 2012, leveraging Mizhi County's natural advantages as an optimal apple-growing region, Ji established the cooperative. Under her leadership, local farmers transformed traditional terraced fields into wide-terraced plots, adopted efficient drip irrigation technology, and engaged technical experts for on-site guidance. After 14 years of dedicated effort, once-barren mountains have been converted into integrated bases for apple production, packaging, storage, sales, and agricultural supply, giving rise to the distinctive "Mizhi Women's Mountain Apple" brand.

Ji highlighted that the essence of building a specialty industry brand lies in creating scarcity—offering what others lack and excelling where others compete. She stressed the importance of safeguarding the industry’s foundation from the source. "Strengthening the protection of local specialty agricultural products, promoting superior seed breeding and variety improvement, are essential to preserving the core characteristics of the products and securing a firm position in the highly competitive market," she noted.

Reflecting on past challenges, Ji pointed out that fragmented small-scale farming often resulted in "high-quality fruit failing to fetch good prices," primarily due to a lack of brand recognition, sales channels, and integrated supply chains. She advocated a two-pronged approach to developing specialty industries: on one hand, improving fruit quality by introducing premium varieties, innovating with integrated drip irrigation and fertilization technologies, and establishing a green pest control system combining physical, biological, and chemical methods; on the other hand, expanding market channels by shifting from traditional offline wholesale to online live-streaming and community group buying, while also developing agritourism-oriented picking farms to enhance the brand influence of specialty industries.