As osmanthus fragrance fills the air and the harvest season is in full swing, agricultural specialty products across Baokang have successively entered their peak harvest period after the Autumn Equinox.

In recent years, Baokang has anchored its goal of building itself into a production base for high-quality and distinctive agricultural and forestry products within the province, keeping a close focus on distinctive industry chains such as tea, Chinese medicinal herbs, and walnuts. By expanding scale, strengthening bases, refining processing, building brands, and broadening channels, one after another premium agricultural product imbued with Baokang's unique flavor has emerged from the mountains and gained recognition in the market, putting more money in the pockets of hardworking farmers and making their lives sweeter.

"Hello everyone, welcome to the Baokang Supply and Marketing Cooperative's agriculture-assistance livestream room. Today we've brought the livestream directly to the Wanzihongqian grape planting base in Liujiaping Village..." Under the grape trellises, the host is speaking to the camera, recommending freshly picked grapes to online viewers.

Such field livestreams have now become the norm in Baokang.

"Welcome to our Baokang Supply and Marketing Cooperative's agriculture-assistance livestream room. Today we are at the walnut planting base in Shuangping Village, Maliang Town..." At the walnut planting base in Shuangping Village, Maliang Town, the host from Baokang Supply and Marketing Group is livestreaming as villagers harvest walnuts. The pristine growing environment and the fresh, high-quality walnuts are shown intuitively, and online orders keep pouring in.

"This year, the county Supply and Marketing Group came to our area to do livestreams and help promote our walnuts, giving us another sales channel," said Zhou Faying, a walnut grower in Shuangping Village, Maliang Town.

Nurturing distinctive agricultural and forestry products with dedication and pooling wisdom and efforts to build "Baokang's Pang Dong Lai." The strong sales of distinctive agricultural products such as tea, walnuts, and fresh fruit embody the vivid practice of Baokang's supply and marketing e-commerce assisting farmers and empowering rural industry revitalization.

"The service philosophy of 'Pang Dong Lai' is: people-oriented, customer first, always putting customer needs first, and providing every customer with considerate and attentive service. It has been called by netizens 'a 6A-level scenic spot with no off-season,'" said Liu Shijun, Party Secretary and Director of the Baokang County Supply and Marketing Cooperative.

In a full effort to build "Baokang's Pang Dong Lai," the entire county is keeping a close focus on six major distinctive industry chains: tea, Chinese medicinal herbs, walnuts, vegetables, tobacco leaves, and freshwater aquaculture. Starting from the source to consolidate the foundation, the county is advancing standardized production, green organic certification, and quality safety traceability, so that every batch of agricultural products leaving the mountains has standards, an identity, and traceability. Baokang Supply and Marketing Group has proactively moved down to the front lines, turning mobile phones into "new farming tools" and livestreaming into "new farm work," providing point-to-point assistance to farmers in revitalizing local distinctive resources and helping distinctive agricultural and forestry products emerge from the mountains.

"Running through fields and farmland with the team every day, I truly feel that Baokang's excellent scenery can produce excellent goods. Through the regular practice of live-streaming sales from real field scenes, we have cumulatively promoted and sold more than 120 kinds of distinctive agricultural products such as tea and walnuts, helping nearly ten thousand households across the county sell their goods and earn money back. I think this work is especially meaningful," said Xiang Yuanyuan, Deputy Manager of Baokang Agriculture-Assistance Commerce and Trade Co., Ltd.

For good products to fetch good prices, the prerequisite is that quality must be solid, and the key lies in whether channels are smooth. This year, Baokang has continued to intensify efforts in production-sales matchmaking. In April this year, the Xiangyang Gaoxiang Tea (Baokang) Exhibition and Sales Promotion and Consumption Event and the Crushed Tea Production-Sales Matchmaking Event were held, where 34 enterprises brought distinctive agricultural products such as tea, shiitake mushrooms, and wood ear mushrooms. On-site transactions reached more than 8,600 orders, with a transaction value of 2.36 million yuan.

"This year, we are focusing on six major distinctive industry chains: tea, Chinese medicinal herbs, walnuts, vegetables, tobacco leaves, and sturgeon, and we continue to consolidate and upgrade distinctive industry bases. Among them, the provincial-level high-quality tea base has reached 100,000 mu, and the high-quality walnut base has reached 88,000 mu. The scale of provincial-level high-quality agricultural product production bases is steadily expanding. Our work focus is very clear: by strengthening bases, refining processing, building brands, and broadening channels, we aim to enable good products to sell at good prices, so that every link in the industry chain can benefit farmers," said Ma Jun, head of the Rural Construction and Rural Social Undertakings Promotion Section of the Baokang County Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau.

In the high-mountain pear orchard of Xujiayan Village, Dianya Town, the abundant sunlight and the temperature difference between day and night brought by the altitude nurture golden pears that are juicy and sweet. The pear orchard has year-round driven more than 20 surrounding households to find nearby employment, with each household increasing its annual income by seven to eight thousand yuan. As the village's distinctive "one village, one product" industry, Xujiayan Village relies on its mountainous advantages, proactively expands channels, attracts customers, and deeply integrates the picking economy with rural leisure tourism.

"We proactively connect with large supermarkets and university cafeterias for procurement. At the same time, we contact the supply and marketing cooperative and the postal group for livestream sales and online sales. This solves the difficulty fruit farmers face in selling their products and allows the distinctive pear orchard to truly drive increased income for the people," said Jiang Bin, Party Branch Secretary and Village Committee Director of Xujiayan Village, Dianya Town, Baokang County.

From high-mountain pear orchards to distinctive industry bases such as tea, Chinese medicinal herbs, and vegetables, Baokang Supply and Marketing Group has proactively connected with planting bases and professional cooperatives in various townships to build a "cooperative + base + supply and marketing platform" model, with unified sorting, unified packaging, and unified branding. Relying on centralized procurement and distribution centers, e-commerce platforms, and offline outlets, it has opened up multiple channels including livestream sales, in-store shopping, and consumption assistance, allowing Baokang's distinctive agricultural products to reach consumers directly from the place of origin.

"In recent years, we have persisted in clearly explaining and clearly labeling the quality of Baokang's distinctive agricultural products, launching them on platforms such as Taobao, Pinduoduo, and Douyin, opening up online and offline sales channels, so that more people know about and more people can buy the good things farmers grow," said Liu Shijun, Party Secretary and Director of the Baokang County Supply and Marketing Cooperative.

A tea garden in Luoshigou Village, Chengguan Town, Baokang County. (Photo by Wang Xiaodan)

For good products to sell at good prices, brand and reputation are key. Recently, 540 products nationwide were proposed for inclusion in the National Famous, Special, Excellent, and New Agricultural Products Directory, and 24 distinctive agricultural products from our province were listed, including Baokang Gastrodia elata, Baokang green tea, and Baokang blood wood ear. At the 4th "Chubei Cup" Tea Competition in Hubei Province, Baokang won 1 Special Gold Award and 1 Gold Award; the registration of the collective trademarks "Baokang Maojian" and "Baokang Hong" is being accelerated. Baokang's tea base scale has reached 200,000 mu, with an annual output of more than 9,000 tons and a comprehensive output value exceeding 2 billion yuan, driving more than 50,000 tea farmers to increase their income.

"Since the beginning of this year, Baokang has cumulatively secured 265 million yuan in various agriculture-related policy funds, focusing on areas of agricultural and rural development such as food security, regular assistance, and the enhancement of agricultural business entities' capabilities. Five enterprises including Baonongkang and Hezhikang have been newly recognized as municipal-level leading enterprises. At present, the county has 7 provincial-level leading enterprises and 14 municipal-level ones," said Ma Jun.

On the sales side, the entire county is accelerating the construction of a full-chain agriculture-assistance system featuring online traffic generation and offline fallback support. Online, it integrates e-commerce resources, operates under a unified brand, and promotes across the entire network in a centralized manner; offline, it has built a 295-mu direct procurement base and a 1,200-cubic-meter intelligent warehousing center, equipped with a delivery fleet, forming an integrated closed loop of harvesting, sorting, warehousing, and distribution.

"We will further continue to intensify efforts in brand building, warehousing and logistics, and livestream sales, sell Baokang's ecologically excellent goods at good prices, make our fellow villagers' pockets increasingly full, and demonstrate the supply and marketing cooperative's responsibility in rural revitalization," said Liu Shijun.

Strictly controlling quality, optimizing after-sales service, and benefiting and serving the people. During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, Baokang will anchor its goals of exceeding 8 billion yuan in total output value of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and fisheries; reaching 30,000 yuan in per capita disposable income of farmers; achieving 850,000 mu of efficient and large-scale bases across six major distinctive industry chains; and reaching 6 billion yuan in total output value of distinctive agricultural and forestry products, so that high-quality agricultural products nurtured by excellent scenery truly emerge from the mountains, enter the market, and benefit the people.